Haunted By Silence

Danny McCarthy had in mind for many years to try and create a work based around the sounds he listened to in St. Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, County Waterford, which is home to Ireland’s only community of Cistercian nuns. He describes it as a wonderful place that he visits regularly – sitting there there for hours on end just listening… In the evening, when the heating system is switched off the wood in the Abbey contracts with the cooling air leading to a sequence of incredible sounds randomly occurring from various locations throughout. These sounds are completely indeterminate; no two are the same and can come from anywhere at any time.

In between, one listens to the silence.

Haunted By Silence takes inspiration from these phenomena McCarthy uses field recordings and sounds created using found objects to weave a single forty seven minute hypnotic composition that on one level reflects his practice of deep listening, and on another his sublime compositional skills. Although this work has its basis in a sound installation in the vaults at Lavit Gallery, Cork which was curated by Brian Mac Domhnaill, it is a work in itself, inspired by it and reworked as a two channel piece.

This release is graced by two specially commissioned essays – the first by renowned writer, curator and sound artist David Toop and another by Sr Eleanor Campion, Cistercian (OCSO) nun of St. Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, whose life is governed by silence. The thoughtful packaging designed by Anthony Kelly and photographs throughout from McCarthy himself makes this album a worthy addition to the collection of any listener with an adventurous ear…