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The Irish Echo, the Irish American weekly newspaper featured the launch of Mel Mercier‘s new album Testament.
The event took place at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin on January 25th. Those in attendance included David McDermott, Caitríona O’Leary, Liam Ó Maonlaí who performed Man of Aran, Kate Ellis, Julie Feeney and director of theatre and opera Deborah Warner.
Mel Mercier talks to Siobhan Long from The Irish Times and explains the creative processes behind his new album Testament.
“I have wanted for a number of years to document some of the soundscapes that I’ve made,” he offers, clearly animated by the undertaking, “because music in the theatre is so ephemeral and the music itself invariably only lives in the context of the production, so if you don’t get to see the production, then you never get to hear the music.”
The Irish Times has given Mel Mercier‘s album Testament a 4 star review.
In her review, Siobhan Long says:
“Coherent and endlessly intriguing works”
“There’s a deeply alluring austerity about this collection of music written from theatre by Mel Mercier.
Somehow, he manages to transmute the three dimensional experience of theatre into this soundscape, capturing and releasing into the ether sometimes fleeting excerpts of his work, where they find fresh flight in the company of one another.”
On Friday 25th January 2019 Heresy Records will release Testament, an album of eleven compositions by Mel Mercier, composer/percussionist/Professor and Chair of Performing Arts at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick.
It features works from the Broadway production of The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín, directed by Deborah Warner which starred Fiona Shaw, The PowerBook from the National Theatre of Great Britain, also directed by Warner and starring Fiona Shaw, Wayne Jordan’s production of Seán O’Casey’s The Shadow Of A Gunman, from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, James Macdonald’s production of Fewer Emergencies by Martin Crimp for the Royal Court Theatre and others.
The compositions have been drawn from original scores created by Mercier for nine Irish and international theatre productions and the collection features music that has been distilled, recomposed and remixed for CD.
“Mercier earned a Tony nomination in 2013 for his sound design for the solo show. His additional credits include the Old Vic’s Glenda Jackson-led King Lear, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and The Shadow of a Gunman at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.”
Read full article on playbill.com
