Music

Ross Turner: ‘Risk is a vital part of the creative process’

Compilation recorded in National Concert Hall features leading lights of contemporary Irish music

‘I’m not particularly spiritual but whatever happened between Lisa and Crash in that room on that day definitely tapped into something of the room’s history and what had come before,’ says Ross Turner

Éamon Sweeney
Sat Sep 25 2021 - 05:00

Music thrives on collaboration. A new compilation featuring 18 artists performing in various rooms, stairwells, nooks and crannies around the illustrious environs of the National Concert Hall nudges it towards another level.

In the Echo: Field Recordings from Earlsfort Terrace was produced and curated by Ross Turner, a Dublin-based musician who has played with Villagers and Lisa Hannigan. Turner is also one half of electronic duo I Am the Cosmos and a former artist in residence at the NCH.

The eye-catching musical pairings on the album include: Lisa O’Neill and Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Katie Kim and Seán Mac Erlaine, Paul Noonan and Roger Moffatt, Eileen Carpio and Sean Carpio, Conor O’Brien and Cian Nugent, Brigid Mae Power and Adrian Crowley, Saileóig Ní Cheannabháin and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and Lisa Hannigan and Crash Ensemble.

“The premise of this project was exploring what could be captured in these spaces compared to the anodyne and controlled environment of a normal recording studio,” Turner says. “I focused on executing this idea rather than the traditional role of being a producer or curator.”

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The august interiors

His wealth of experience and intimate knowledge of the august interiors of Earlsfort Terrace helped hugely. “I got to wear my musician’s hat in approaching it from the point of view of people collaborating with someone they’d never worked with before in an unfamiliar environment,” he says. “I kept looking at it from all these different perspectives, while focusing on my main role of documenting and capturing everything as best I could.”

The concert hall was originally built, in 1865, as an exhibition space. The Guinness family bought the building in 1871 and started to host concerts and recitals from the likes of Count John McCormack and the Hallé Orchestra.

It housed University College Dublin from 1908 to 1981 and has numerous connections and intersections with the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty. After UCD relocated to Belfield on the periphery of Dublin 4, the campus was converted into a national cultural institution and was officially opened 40 years ago this month by president Patrick Hillary with inaugural performances by the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, The Chieftains, and John O’Conor.

“There is so much history in the building,” Turner agrees. “This became part of the process and whole curiosity of looking at the spaces in the building and realising they could be used for a multitude of different things. The concert hall themselves were extremely receptive in terms of facilitating access to different parts of the building.”

Unusual room

Paul Noonan (BellX1, House Plants, Printer Clips) and percussionist Roger Moffat worked in a particularly unusual room that you won’t find in recording studios such as Windmill Lane or Grouse Lodge.

“At the time of recording, Roger was the percussionist in the National Symphony Orchestra and storing a vast array of percussive instruments in what used to be the morgue of the UCD pathology department,” Ross explains. “Paul and Roger was the first collaboration we recorded. The room itself has been used for countless sets for TV shows because it has that original pathological morgue feel to it that carries a certain energy with it.”

This recording informed the rest of the project. “As people signed up, I figured out where would be the most suitable and interesting place to put them,” Turner reveals. “It transformed into something very different and exciting rather than just putting people together for the sake of it, or doing a covers album, or whatever else people usually do on a collaborative compilation, which is all well and good, but it doesn’t excite me the same way of having an element of risk, which is a vital part of the creative process.”

Haunted

Turner believes the building’s rich history haunted the recordings in some mysterious way, especially on Lisa Hannigan and Crash Ensemble’s collaboration, MCMXIV (the Roman numerals for 1914, not to be confused with a Philip Larkin poem of the same name).

“Above the Kevin Barry room, there are three almost basketball court-sized spaces spread out over that façade built in 1914. Anglo-Irish Treaty talks took place here and there really seems to be a certain energy around that part of the building. I’m not particularly spiritual but whatever happened between Lisa and Crash in that room on that day definitely tapped into something of the room’s history and what had come before.”

As the title indicates, In the Echo is a collection of field recordings capturing a specific moment in time. “In the quiet moments Lisa O’Neill and Colm Mac Con Iomaire doing Peggy Gordon you can hear elements of a storm outside. There is great comfort in the music, borne out of the stormy atmosphere in which it was created. The listener is gently invited in by Lisa and Colm.”

When I eventually get to return to music, it's going to be quite strange and different

As for other activities, Ross doesn’t envisage any I Am the Cosmos activity on the immediate horizon. “I’m currently doing a degree in psychotherapy,” he says. “I was lucky enough to start that before the pandemic. I’m now going into fourth year and doing a placement. I was working with Villagers and Lisa Hannigan before everything stopped. Cian, who I do I Am the Cosmos with, has a record shop called Optic Music (operating from Hen’s Teeth in Blackpitts, Dublin 8) so I don’t think we’re as interested or available at this point in time. It’s a good time to focus on education and other things. I played professionally and toured for 17 years so it’s been a welcome break to do something different and not be quite so caught up in the bubble of playing music.”

Despite a pivot in his primary career, Turner still shares the bafflement and frustrations of his musician friends. “When I eventually get to return to music, it’s going to be quite strange and different,” he says. “We finished the Villagers album on Paddy’s Day 2020, just when everything started kicking off. It was so strange to be in touring mode and then nothing. It’s all been very strange and long-winded.”

‘Absolutely fascinating’

Turner is relishing his new challenges, “It’s been absolutely fascinating so far,” he says. “A huge amount of it is about personal development and challenging parts of yourself in order to go through that process with other people. I’ve loved learning from people and witnessing their resilience. I’m very curious to see how this might feed into my musical career at some point. So much of it is about self-care, so having these other outlets is very important. Music is a good one because there is nothing quite like bashing a drum kit at the end of the day to release tension.”

In the Echo: Field Recordings from Earlsfort Terrace is out on September 30th.

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