New Music Release Inspired by Erasmus Partnerships
Students from the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology are to the fore in a new musical release this June. Inspired by his travels as part of Erasmus-funded educational partnerships, ‘Stord Sunrise’ is a composition of DkIT Music lecturer Dr Daithí Kearney which has been produced by Frode Hammersland, a lecturer at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
Daithí and Frode have been collaborating on a variety of projects for over a decade, visiting each other’s’ institutions and travelling to teach and facilitate workshops in other European partners. For this project they have benefitted from the additional contribution of Norwegian engineer Ian Kolstad, Nacksving Norge, who mixed the recordings that were made in Dundalk, and Swedish producer Anders Lagerfors, Nacksving Sverige who mastered the tracks for release.
Dr Daithí Kearney
The release features students Gavin Gribben (banjo), Aoife Higgins (flute), Chen Jia Ng Angel (fiddle), Rhíona McPhelim (drums), and Jessica Muldrew (double bass), with additional contribution from Frode (bass guitar, percussion) and Kearney (mandolin, tin whistle).
Dr Kearney states “The music is inspired not only by Irish traditional music but incorporates ideas and rhythms beyond the Irish tradition and benefits from Frode’s experience as a performer of rock, popular, jazz and world music. The DkIT students were challenged to think beyond familiar musical genres to create a new and exciting sound that captures some of the excitement of creative collaboration on an international level.”
This release grew out of a project entitled Echoes of Erasmus, which was hosted by the Department of Creative, Arts, Media and Music at DkIT in 2023. Selected as part of a national programme of events marking Ireland’s 50 years of EU membership funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of An Taoiseach, the project celebrated DkIT’s collaboration with fellow European Erasmus educational partners. Frode was one of three visiting musician-educators who engaged with students at DkIT for a special concert attended by Minister Peter Burke and other local representatives.
In 2024, Frode returned to DkIT to work with students and secured additional funding from his university to produce two tracks that were developments of repertoire performed in the previous year’s concert. Frode worked with students on the BA (Hons) Music at DkIT to develop their arrangements and recorded them in the Carroll Building. Back in Norway, he added further elements to the tracks, collaborating remotely with Kearney to achieve the final edit.
‘Stord Sunrise’ will be available from Spotify and Apple Music from 17 June 2024.
