Spilt Milk Festival present a programme of contemporary moving image work by Irish artists exploring ideas relating to memory, communication, loss. Featuring work by Jenny Brady, Eimear Walshe, Frank Sweeney and Margaret Kilcoyne, journeys both literal and metaphorical delve deep at the personal and political, showing the power and importance of our voice to heal, agitate; and harness the collective force of communities.
Followed by live performances from Poor Creature and Son Zept.
Poor Creature are Cormac MacDiarmada (Lankum), Ruth Clinton (Landless) and John MacDiarmada (The Jimmy Cake). They perform new interpretations of old songs, accompanied by viola, guitar, synth and theremin. Drawing inspiration from Irish and American traditional music their music has dark and dreamy undertones and features themes of love, loss and the supernatural.
Belfast-based experimental electronic composer-producer Liam McCartan, aka Son Zept, began his project in 2018 combining his influences from the rich history of the hardcore continuum. His intricate genre-exploding club constructions transport the listener so far past his IDM, techno, and electroacoustic touchstones into a new mutated rave aesthetic. His work has since evolved into a beatless expansive exploration of sonic possibilities fusing sound art, drone, power-ambient, minimalism and maximalism.
This performance will be a dense audio-visual experience focusing on immersion and texture. A sonic tour ranging from beautiful minimalist ambient to bass-heavy spectralist intensity. Drawing from his solo work and collaborations with traditional Irish singers, classical violinists and spoken word artists. Focusing on the role of memory in sound, Son Zept will be fusing his influences of power-ambient, electroacoustic music, hauntology, drone metal, Celtic music, and classical minimalism/maximalism.
Film information, running time 65 mins
Eimear Walshe, Land Cruiser, 2022, 24 mins
Frank Sweeney, Two-channel Land, 2022, 16 mins
Margaret Kilcoyne, Folláine, 2023, 7 mins
Jenny Brady, Music for Solo Performer, 2022, 18 mins
Eimear Walshe, Land Cruiser
Land Cruiser charts a perverse quest across an Ireland marked by covetousness, murder and mortgages.
Frank Sweeney, Two-channel Land
2 Channel Land is a north-western docu-fiction film exploring the history of analogue signals spilling across the borders of Ireland and Britain. Guided by a mysterious threshold deity, we take a journey through Irealnd’s borderlands in search of community.
Margaret Kilcoyne, Folláine
Chronicling the story of Saint/Goddess/Wise Woman Attracta of which there are over 40 holy wells named in Sligo and neighbouring counties Leitrim and Roscommon. Sacred Space, and stories that remain with us about cures, customs and traditions affiliated with these holy wells are an integral part of this mini documentary.
Jenny Brady, Music for Solo Performer
Part-homage, part-sequel, Music for Solo Performer is a filmic reimagining of composer Alvin Lucier’s work for amplified brainwaves, drawing connections between the 1969 composition, speech synthesis and the passing of the filmmaker’s mother. Brady’s disparate assemblage of found sound and image – including EEG analysis, a Jerry Lewis Telethon and the first pizza ordered via synthesized voice – combines to form a densely concentrated transmission of cinematic pleasure, meditating on the relationship between illness and technology with pathos and care.
Commissioned by The Model