“It wasn’t just tuning that went beyond “confines”. O’Halpin deploys the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar in ways that are pretty much alien to those of its familiar role in rock music. “ Michael Dungan, The Irish Times

Barry O’Halpin (b.1987) is a composer and performer based in Dublin, merging approaches and formative influences from contemporary classical, experimental rock, electronic music and jazz contexts. He is an electric guitarist with Crash Ensemble, and a member of Dublin experimental rock trio Alarmist.

His inventive approach to the electric guitar frequently lies at the heart of his ensemble and solo works, with pieces such as Wingform, Lipids and Stridula exploring possibilities of the instrument to unique and atmospheric effect, through unusual techniques, timbres and microtonal tunings. These and other works have often drawn upon natural-world sounds and phenomena as sources of a sort of wild, uncanny musicality to be brought into fusion with more familiar elements. The result is an individual sound world that is crawling with detail and yet direct in its language.

‘ From the opening moments of [Wingform] it was clear that something quite special was happening …. it was impossible not to visualise diverse soundscapes from underwater cries of whales or dolphins to more industrial sounding material….A sure candidate for the revelation of New Music Dublin 2021.’ Adrian Smith, The Journal of Music

Barry’s large-scale work Wingform received its live audience premiere at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2022, performed by an 11-strong Crash Ensemble led by conductor Ryan McAdams, with Barry as electric guitar soloist. It received its online streaming premiere during lockdown at New Music Dublin Festival 2021, and was released as an album on Crash Records in April 2022.

Wingform is a culmination of Barry’s 2018–2020 period as Crash’s Composer-in-Residence, and his concurrent Arts & Humanities Artist Residency at Parity Studios, University College Dublin. Teeming with living energy, Wingform takes advantage of Crash’s ability to cover a breadth of musical ground over four movements: winding melodies, mechanical rhythms, rapid lines and hypnotic drones.

An initial found recording of swarming mosquitos merged with electrical hum is the sonic seed for the piece, appearing in transcribed form throughout the work as a wave like-mantra, constantly contorting into new shapes. Barry’s exploratory approach to the electric guitar weaves through and makes highly personal these uncanny combinations of wild and human-made sounds.

Lipids is a composer portrait album, released via Crash Records, charting the evolution of Barry’s inventive and exploratory writing for both chamber ensemble and solo electric guitar, in three works composed from 2014-2019.

“…within this stillness [of Lipids] there is plenty of skittering and snarling...his ability to weave this all together into a cohesive – and intense – texture is remarkable…O’Halpin’s writing on ‘Stridula’ is as good as I have ever heard for the instrument in a classical context.” James Camien McGuiggan, The Journal of Music

Hox (2019) was written for the bass flute and drum kit duo SlapBang, consisting of Lina Andonovska (Eighth Blackbird) and Matthew Jacobson (Roamer, Anna Mieke), and features on Lina’s 2020 album A Way A Lone A Last (Diatribe Records).

“[O’Halpin’s Hox] gave me the feeling of having been pocket dialled and being led down the rabbit hole of listening to the rhythmic groove of someone’s daily ritualistic patterns, muffled and fluttering in and out of focus. Techno meets Boulez, this otherworldly kind-of-dance number is a thrilling opener for this excellent record.” Music Trust Australia

Recent projects have included ensemble arrangements in collaboration with singer-songwriters: Adrian Crowley’s ‘Kathleen McKenna’ (Treaty Songs, NCH, Dec 2021) and Diamanda La Berge Dramm’s Chimp album launch (New Music Dublin, May 2022).

[Diamanda La Berge Dramm’s] closing song ‘memory’… appeared in this concert in a beautiful arrangement by O’Halpin that melted into a shimmering coda of harmonic glissandos on violin and viola and resonant sonorities on the piano and percussion. Adrian Smith, Journal of Music

His band Alarmist have built an international following over the course of four records since 2011, with press coverage including All About Jazz, Irish Times, Kerrang! and the Sunday Times and radio including BBC 6 Tom Ravenscroft & Gideon Coe, BBC 3 Late Junction and Jon Schaefer’s New Sounds WNYC. Live highlights have included Ottawa Jazz (Canada), InJazz (Netherlands), 12 Points (Sweden), Match & Fuse (Zurich) and Vinterfest (Denmark).

"Genres are harvested and manipulated, and [they] take a quasi orchestral approach that allows their music to hover in its own instrumental space, gravitationally pulled toward a rock aesthetic but constantly implying other philosophies in a way that excites."
Improvised Music Company on Alarmist.

Barry's music has been performed and workshopped internationally by groups including Crash Ensemble, Kirkos Ensemble, Alex Petcu-Colan, Lina Andanovska & SlapBang, Chamber Choir Ireland, Rarescale, Bastard Assignments, Fishamble Sinfonia, Benyounes Quartet, BINARY flute duo and ConTempo Quartet.

In 2018-2020 he was Composer-In-Residence with Crash Ensemble, developing and composing the large-scale ensemble work Wingform, premiered streaming at New Music Dublin 2021 and with a live audience at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2022. He was 2018-20 Arts & Humanities Artist in Residence at Parity Studios, University college Dublin.

His work has featured in festivals & concert series including Other Voices (IRL), Bang On A Can Summer Music Festival (US), Kilkenny Arts Festival (IRL), Tokyo Wonder Site (JPN),  Other Voices, New Music Dublin (IRL), and Borough New Music (UK). 

A tactile preoccupation with his instrument’s capacity for unique timbres and microtonal tunings has shaped an exploratory approach to the role of the electric guitar in contemporary chamber music, seen in works such as Wingform, Stridula, Grave Goods, Lipids, Coinage and Free Cells Drinking the Medium.

These and other works have often drawn upon natural-world sounds and phenomena as sources of a sort of wild, uncanny musicality to be brought into fusion with more familiar elements. The result is an individual sound world that is crawling with detail and yet direct in its language.

His band Alarmist blends experimental rock, jazz and electronic influences, and have gained an international following with their four records Sequesterer (2019), Popular Demain (2015), Pal Magnet (2013) and Alarmist (2011).

http://alarmist.bandcamp.com

In 2021 he completed a PhD in Music Composition Queen’s University Belfast supervised by Simon Mawhinney, passing his viva with Christopher Fox and Pedro Rebelo with no corrections. In 2012-2013 he undertook MMus Composition studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London, with tutors including Gwyn Pritchard, Paul Newland, Deirdre Gribbin and Paul Bartholomew. For his undergraduate Music studies at Trinity College Dublin he specialised in Composition with Donnacha Dennehy and Sean Reed, gaining the 2010 Geoffrey Singleton Prize for his final portfolio.

Barry has been active as a performer in numerous contexts including contemporary chamber music, experimental rock, electronic and improvised music, performing his own works in addition to wider repertoire. His highly personal approach to the guitar emerges not from one tradition but as a hybrid of the above experiences, closely tied with his practice as a composer. Since 2016 he has been a regular performing member of leading Irish contemporary music group Crash Ensemble, with highlights including:

• Wingform, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2022

• West Cork Chamber Music Festival 2022

• Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s opera The First Child, 2021-22

• 2019 Irish premiere of Fausto Romitelli’s Professor Bad Trip.

• Solo concert at Other Voices 2019 in Co. Kerry.

• World premieres of works by Tansy Davies, Ann Cleare, David Lang & more.

•  Festival appearances at Musica Nova (Finland), Gaida (Lithuania), Sounds from a Safe Harbour (Cork) & Kilkenny Arts. 

He was Guitar Fellow at Bang On A Can’s Summer Music Festival 2017 (US) and the same group’s 2016 Villa Musica academy (Germany), performing in numerous works including those by composers in attendance Louis Andriessen and Michael Gordon, and receiving mentoring from renowned faculty such as Mark Stewart (guitar) & Ken Thomson (sax), and Vicki Ray (piano). He has studied privately with jazz guitarists Reinier Baas and Mike Nielsen.

In 2021 he was guitarist in Irish National Opera’s production of Amanda Feery’s A Thing I Cannot Name, and Caitríona O’Leary’s Anakronos ensemble.

Festival performance highlights with Alarmist include Ottawa Jazz (CAN), Arctangent (UK), 12 Points (SWE/IR) and Match & Fuse (FR/UK), with tours of Ireland, UK, Europe & Canada.