Going out: the best of what’s on this weekend

Friday  

Music Books
Various venues, Dundalk. Also Saturday
louthcms.org
Louth Contemporary Music Society has a reputation for ambitious programming and this short festival is no exception. Five books of  music will be performed by musicians of an international calibre. Tonight, Saltarello tackle John Zorn's Book of Angels, with French soprano Hélène Fauchere performing Onute Narbutaite's Heliography. On Saturday, Garth Knox, Agnès Vesterman and Diamanda Dramm will tackle a programme on the book of Love; Ian Pace takes on the Book of Elements; Dafne Vicente-Sandoval will play a new piece by Jakob Ullmann; and a Book of Songs concert will feature work by Jürg Frey, Henryk Górecki and Galina Ustvolskaya. An extraordinary selection of music.

Timo Maas
Button Factory, Dublin 8pm €20
soundcloud.com/timo-maas
Thanks to Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five, Timo Maas is enjoying quite a bit of acclaim at present. That's the Paul McCartney and Wings track which Maas and James "My Favourite Robot" Teej remixed and which is receiving a rave response worldwide. Maas's last album was 2013's Lifer which saw him work with Placebo's Brian Molko, James Lavelle, Mikill Pane and others. This is the German producer's first live appearance round these parts since 2008.

Bronagh Gallagher
Whelan's, Dublin 8pm €15
whelanslive.com
Derry actor/singer Bronagh Gallagher takes to soul music like the proverbial duck to water, and with a sassy new album (Gather Your Greatness) to plug, you can be assured that her unbridled levels of energy – as well as a cracking band – will carry the gig long into the night.

Cuff
The Wright Venue, Dublin 10pm €15
thewrightvenue.ie
The French are in the house. Ghetto house proponents Sirus Hood, Amine Edge and DANCE are the main draws in north Dublin tonight. Sirus Hood's mix of deep house, ghetto house and hip-house has attracted the attention of Dirtybird and other imprints, while Amine Edge and DANCE's tracks like Halfway Crooks and Going To Heaven With the Good-Goodies have found favour worldwide.

The Galway Sessions
Various venues throughout the weekend
galwaysessions.com
The Crane Bar's Mick Crehan has been spearheading some fine summer sessions for some years now, and this year, in tandem with the 1916 centenary commemorations, he's widened the lens to encompass some lectures on the intersection between the musical and historical context, with a particular emphasis on Éamonn Ceannt. A weekend highlight has to be Hebridean singer Julie Fowlis's open-air concert at Mainguard Street, but for those seeking a more intimate session, check out Jessie Smith, Sean Gavin, John Blake and Johnny " Ringo " McDonagh at The Crane Bar itself.

Saturday  

Flashback
Voodoo Lounge, Dublin 9pm €15/€12
facebook.com/flashbackdublin
Those who can remember (however vaguely) the golden age of club flyers will know DJ Slipmatt as one who featured at the top of many lurid, colourful handbills. Be it SL2's On a Ragga Tip or happy hardcore anthems for Awesome, Matt Nelson was at the heart of the action. Aside from a full-bodied acid house set from Slipmatt, tonight also features such stalwart Dublin heads from back in the day as Pat Hyland, Chris D, Al Stevens and Derek Cully.

Étienne de Crécy
Electric, Galway 11pm €10/€5
electricgalway.com
French DJ and producer Étienne de Crécy has been spinning and producing chic house sounds since his initial Super Discount foray (considered by many as the first album of French Touch). This pioneering release saw the Motorbass producer influence many others with its sublime, majestic span and grooves. That Touch scene has never grown old, as the reaction to last year's highly acclaimed film Eden clearly demonstrated.

Listen at Arthurs
Arthurs, Dublin 8pm €5
facebook.com/ArthursPub
Composer and jazz musician Dylan Rynhart's monthly new music salon blithely ignores the genre question and offers the intrepid listener a lightening survey of what's hot and what's about to be. This month's sonic smorgasbord features spoken word from jazz broadcaster Billy O'Hanluain; London avant-garde duo Joseph Houston (piano) and Aisha Orazbayeva (violin) playing Cage etc; acoustic string folk from Mary and the Pigeons; and percussion trio Bangers and Crash.

Sunday  

two birds/one stone
Farmleigh Gallery, Phoenix Park, Dublin Until Aug 7
farmleigh.ie
Artist Janet Mullarney curates a show that focuses on how specific materials are vital to particular artworks. She's put together a dazzling variety of work from a formidable list of artists: Cecily Brennan, Dorothy Cross, Maud Cotter, Aleana Egan, John Gibbons, Tony Hill, Mary Kelly, Alice Maher, Eileen McDonagh, Locky Morris (Town, County and People), Paul Mosse, Helen O'Leary, Niamh O'Malley, Adrian Paci, Rachel Parry, Alan Phelan, Kathy Prendegast, Linda Quinlan, David Quinn, Eddie Rafferty, Charles Tyrrell, Michael Warren and Daphne Wright.