Album Launch
Saturday 4th March at 6.30pm & 9pm
‘The Strand Cinema’ album launch is an audio-visual performance of new music by Northern Irish DJ and music producer Phil Kieran. The Ulster Orchestra will accompany the electronic composer in this one-off silver screen experience. Artists from across the worlds of film, animation, architecture, computer science and dance have interpreted the music into onscreen visualisations that explore the balance between nature and technology.
Phi Kieran is no stranger to creating and synchronising music to film but says,
‘I wanted to switch things around. This is more a V/A show than an A/V show. The music existed first and I was curious to see how it could be enhanced visually. Each artist created a piece to match a chosen track so they’re like separate scenes which were then stitched together to form the final show. The timeline travels across the past, present and future using cinema as a loose reference point. My recording studio is based in the Strand and I was interested in how the essence of the building as a communal space with its own daily rhythms was changed during the Covid lockdown. I reflected on how much film theatres worldwide have changed since my childhood and what the future might bring, not just for cinema but for humanity’.
‘The brief was purposely loose so the final works range from traditional film edited from Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive, to original videography from LA based director Frederico Marzio Vitetta who is famous for skateboarding films like ‘Wet Dream’ with Spike Jonze, to futuristic scenes using CGI from BAFTA nominated Kris Kelly. Contemporary dancer, Oona Doherty merges an onscreen to onstage performance. Each scene explores different aspects of nature and technology with varying degrees of utopian versus dystopian outlooks’.
‘The album was created from organic sounds manipulated by machines. The machines in my studio only sound as good as the human soul and spirit I put into them but I’m not so sure that AI generated music can ever sound human’.
‘At present, there is no algorithm or recording that sounds as immersive and omni-directional as listening to a live orchestra so I’m delighted to be able to play alongside the Ulster Orchestra at this special intimate performance’.