Fergus Kelly: Sonic Art: Mass X Ray Invisible City: Parts I to IV (Project Arts Centre "off-site" piece)
Kelly, an artist who invents instruments, returns to euphonic musique concrete with these heavily processed "field recordings" of Dublin: gulls, dopplering motorbikes, pipes rattling on concrete, conversation, the drone of aircraft, the whale-moans of bus-brakes and heavy traffic - all smeared into abstraction, with long, slow pulses of overlapping sound. A young woman's scream, though probably of benign origin outside a chip shop, is upsetting, but most of it is chill-out background, in a reassuringly dystopic, urban-industrial setting. The noise of your own backyard can interfere at times, but treat this recording with too much reverence and it can be like being stuck waiting on a phone, after someone's forgotten to hang up. Also, beware the nasty volume leap near the beginning. It could blow your speakers - and your good humour.
Mic Moroney