ABOUt
Barry O’ Halpin is a composer and electric guitarist based in Dublin, Ireland.
Wingform - Crash25 Anniversary Concert, National Concert Hall Dublin, 2022
“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 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 yet directly melodic.
‘ 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 O’Halpin at Rothe House –Kilkenny Arts Festival Secret Music Series
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.
“The engaging and eventful Wingform, by the group’s guitarist Barry O’Halpin, draws its material from recordings of massed wing vibrations of Asian tiger mosquitoes. Two of O’Halpin’s microtonal electric guitar compositions connect the movements, with extended techniques such as knocking the back of the fretboard to produce a quivering drone.”
Andy Hamilton, The Wire, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2022 Review
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
His band Alarmist built an international following over the course of four records from 2011-2019, 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.
Listen
Selected excerpts from compositions.
More at:
A Way A Lone A Last- Lina Andonovska
Listen to/purchase Alarmist music at:
http://alarmist.bandcamp.com
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Crash Ensemble & Barry O'Halpin
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Crash Ensemble & Barry O'Halpin
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Crash Ensemble
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SlapBang: Lina Andonovska (bass flute) & Matthew Jacobson (drums)
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Kirkos Ensemble & Barry O'Halpin
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Kirkos Ensemble & Barry O'Halpin
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Crash Ensemble
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Carla Rees & Rarescale
BIO
COMPOSITION
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).
His scores often channel elemental sources of musicality from the natural world: dream-like reflections on Ireland’s limestone and bog landscapes in Chambergrist and Heaving Moss (2023), mosquito swarms and wasp songs in Wingform (2020) and Hox (2019) and elemental vibrations in Stonemired (2017). His inventive and highly personal approach to the electric guitar is a common thread, cutting a melodic route through dense soundscapes. Melt the Wax Tower (2025) for the National Symphony Orchestra pays homage to Charles Mingus, while a 2024 Kaleidoscope songwriting co-commission with singer Michelle O’Rourke explores ambient and dream-pop informed song-writing.
His band Alarmist has blended experimental rock, jazz and electronic influences, gaininf an international following with their four records Sequesterer (2019), Popular Demain (2015), Pal Magnet (2013) and Alarmist (2011).
In 2021 he completed a PhD in Music Composition Queen’s University Belfast supervised by Simon Mawhinney. 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.
PERFORMANCE
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:
Anne Cleare’s Terrarium, November Music (NL) 2024
Tampere Biennale Finland, 2024
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 has toured and recorded with several Irish National Opera productions, including the GRAMMY-nominated TRADE/MARY MOTORHEAD (Emma & Mark O’Halloran), THE FIRST CHILD (Donnacha Dennehy & Enda Walsh) and A Thing I Cannot Name (Amanda Feery & Megan Nolan).
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, with mentorship 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.
With Alarmist, festival performance highlights included Ottawa Jazz (CAN), Arctangent (UK), 12 Points (SWE/IR) and Match & Fuse (FR/UK), with tours of Ireland, UK, Europe & Canada.
He has also performed in live and recorded projects including the ambient guitar electronica of John Lambert’s Chequerboard, Caitriono O’Leary’s medieval-inspired Anakronos and composer Timothy Cape’s The Squaring.
ARRANGEMENTS
In recent years, Barry’s live arrangements for Crash Ensemble wirh guest artists have blurred genre boundaries and expanded upon the lyrical sound worlds of singer-songwriters including:
Anna Mieke (MusicTown Festival 2025, Skibbereen Arts Festival 2025)
Goldbug & Crash Ensemble (MusicTown Festival 2025)
Rachael Lavelle (MusicTown Festival 2024 & Sounds From A Safe Harbour 2025)
Diamanda La Berge Dramm (New Music Dublin 2022)
Adrian Crowley (Treaty Songs, NCH, 2021)
PRESS QUOTES
“Rachael Lavelle's performance with Crash Ensemble at MusicTown was transformative…..Every second seamed through with wild and vibrant colours, these fresh arrangements from Crash's Barry O’Halpin [also of Alarmist] complemented and elevated already exceptional material…. I count myself lucky to have been there.” Adhamh O’Caoimh, The Goo
“[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
But most impressive among non-Australian artists is Ireland’s Crash Ensemble. The engaging and eventful Wingform, by the group’s guitarist Barry O’Halpin, draws its material from recordings of massed wing vibrations of Asian tiger mosquitoes. Two of O’Halpin’s microtonal electric guitar compositions connect the movements, with extended techniques such as knocking the back of the fretboard to produce a quivering drone.” Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Review, Andy Hamilton, The Wire.
“ O’Halpin is masterful in the way he manipulates this altered background. He controls it so that it is always precisely that – gentle – never an overt Eastern coloration, not an accent. Just whispers…This on its own was not actually what made grave goods so arresting at its world premiere in Sunday’s concert by Crash Ensemble at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Its real impact came from the quiet totality of its soundworld: hesitant, random and delicate, several different registers – high, middle and low – all in subdued, intimate discourse with one another, the separation and combination of distinct voices on a solo string instrument reminiscent of Bach.” ‘grave goods’ premiere review, Michael Dungan, The Irish Times.
“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. The second movement demonstrated how to write pointillistic music and yet make it sound utterly fresh with some wonderful writing for prepared piano and percussion…The piece didn’t sag at all throughout the sixty-five-minute duration, a testimony to O’Halpin’s compositional skill and inventiveness. A sure candidate for the revelation of New Music Dublin 2021, this piece simply has to be top of Crash’s list of priorities for a live, in-person performance when things get back to normal.“ ‘Wingform’ premiere review, Adrian Smith, The Journal of Music.
….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 electric guitar writing on ‘Stridula’ is as good as I have ever heard for the instrument in a classical context.” EP review, James Camien McGuiggan, The Journal of Music, 2021.
“the beating of tones, the rustle of the cello, the clicking slide of a pen on the piano keys. Energy is gathered and the music finishes with playful stops-and-starts….“ 'Catarrh', Kirkos premiere review, GoldenPlec.
“The next piece takes the concert on a spectacular detour from 1740s Dublin, as Barry O’Halpin’s newly commissioned Toric is presented. Extended string techniques create a soundboard of dissonance, glissando, and shrieking high notes, as if this was the part of Dublin that had been infested by the bubonic plague” 'Toric', Fishamble Sinfonia premiere review, David Scott, Goldenplec.
“Like the original prerequisites of the term post-rock, they use their instruments of rock in ways that incorporate jazz, electronic and truly experimental textures to create something unlike the standard. Alarmist’s music spins and pivots in motion and colour.” Nialler9.
“Rather than take a predictable post-rock route, [Alarmist’s Sequesterer] veers near jazz improv, squeezing dashes, squiggles, peculiar percussive patterns and unexpected chord changes into its eight tracks....The title tune, with it’s retro-futuristic sheen...is just one standout in a creative LP with a surprising level of depth.’ Lauren Murphy, The Sunday Times Ireland.
SELECTED WORKS
LARGE ENSEMBLE/ORCHESTRA
MELT THE WAX TOWER 11' (2024)
For the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Written as part of NSO & Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland’s Composer Lab professional development initiative, with mentorship from Dave Fennessy,
Premiered January 2025 at the National Concert Hall Dublin.
wingform 56' (2020)
For 11 Musicians (picc/a.fl, cl, cl/b.cl, tbn, perc, pno, e.gtr, vln, vla, vc, db)
Commissioned by Crash Ensemble with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland.
Premiered streaming at New Music Dublin 2021, and with live audience at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2022, conducted by Ryan McAdams.
Vargvarde 7' (2018)
For choir (SSAATTBB).
Written for Chamber Choir Ireland, as part of Choral Sketches 2018 Professional development initiative with Contemporary Music Centre Ireland & mentor composer Tarik O’Regan.
STONEMIRED 24’ (2017)
Alto fl./picc, bass cl, piano, e.guitar, 2 vlns, vla, vc, fixed electronics, film by Rouzbeh Rashidi.
Commissioned by Kirkos Ensemble & Experimental Film Society w/funds from Arts Council Ireland. Premiere screening/performance at Wilderness Notes, Filmbase, Dublin, Sept 2017.
Toric 10’ (2015)
String Orchestra/Ensemble (8 vlns, 2 vlas, 2 vcls, Db)
Commissioned & premiered by Fishamble Sinfonia w/guest director Darragh Morgan at Death of Castrucci concert, D-Light Studios, Dublin, Sept 2015.
Lethargarian 6' (2014)
Picc, cl, tbn, vib, pno, vln, vla, vcl, Db
Selected from open call submission by Crash Ensemble & composer/curator Raymond Deane for premiere performance, Free State 8, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Apr 2014.
The Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment 3’30” (2012)
Wind Orchestra. Commissioned & premiered by Trinity Laban Wind Orchestra, Blackheath Halls, London, November 2012.
Image: Rouzbeh Rashidi (2017)
SMALL ENSEMBLE
CHAMBERGRIST 35’ (2023)
Electric guitar & percussion.
Premiered by Barry O’Halpin & Alex Petcu-Colan at Cavan Arts Festival, May 2023, with accompanying clay sculpture by Elaine Harrington. Emerging from collaborative research with ceramic artist Elaine Harrington, and field trips to the Burren and Copper Coast with with support from geoscience organisation iCRAG.
Developed with support by Music Bursary Award & Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland.
HEAVING MOSS 15’ (2023)
Bass clarinet, percussion & electronics.
Premiered by Wildwood Deirdre O’Leary & Alex Petcu-Colan at The Dock, Leitrim, April 2023, with further performances at Hugh Lane Gallery, Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Birr Theatre and Riverbank Theatre, Newbridge.
Commissioned with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland.
HOX 9’ (2018-19)
Amplified bass flute & drum kit.
Composed for SlapBang (Lina Andonovska & Matthew Jacobson) during UCD Parity Studios Artist Residency.
HALTERE 15-20’ (2018-19)
Electric guitar, accordion, oscillators, oscilloscope & electronics.
Premiered by Barry O’Halpin & Evin Kelly at UCD Science Centre, April 2019.
Composed during UCD Parity Studios Artist Residency.
Difference Fumes 7’ (2017)
Flute/picc, clarinet, piano, violin, cello.
Free Cells Drinking The Medium 9’ (2016)
Bass flute, viola, electric guitar
Commissioned by Bastard Assignments for Fresh & Clean, Block 336 Brixton, Feb 2016.
Lipids 7’ (2015)
Bass clarinet, cello, electric guitar.
Premiered & toured by Crash Ensemble as part of Born in the 80s Irish tour 2015-2016. Programmed in Composing the Island festival, National Concert Hall, Dublin.
Catarrh 4’ (2014)
Flute, clarinet, piano, cello.
Premiered by Kirkos Ensemble, ICC10 Festival, Project Arts Centre, Apr 2014.
Twin Molluscs 9’ (2013)
Flute & bass flute
Finalist at Rarescale Student Composition Competition 2013. Performed at Tokyo Wonder Site festival 2016 by Lina Andonovska & Janet McKay (BINARY)
Coinage 9' (2013/14)
2 electric guitars, flute, synthesiser & mixed instrumentation.
Performed with Bastard Assignments at Big Red, London June 2013. Revised version at Block T, Dublin, July 2014.
RUMINANT
String Quartet. Performed by Benyounes Quartet at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, 2013.
SOLO
STRIDULA 8’ (2019)
Electric guitar (scordatura). Premiered at the Metropolitan Arts Cente, Belfast March 2019.
A Moving On Music Commission.
Grave GOODS 9’ (2018)
Electric guitar (scordatura). Premiered at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin , December 2018.
Berkelsemere 8-9’ (2016)
Solo voice & electronics. Composed for singer Michelle O’Rourke, premiered at Irish Composers Collective Vox concert, Lutheran Hall, Dublin, October 2016.
Telomere 4’ (2015)
Bb Clarinet. Premiered by Léonie Bluett, Lutheran Hall, Dublin, September 2015. Programmed at Ensemble Music's Future Composers event, Chocolate Factory, Dublin, March 2016.
Miniature 3’ (2013)
Piano. Premiered by Clare Simmonds at Bastard Assignments: Rude Health at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, 2013. Featured in composer Raymond Deane's piano recital, Irish Composers on Irish Music series, National Concert Hall Dublin, Jan 2015.