The Crash Ensemble double bassist and composer Caimin Gilmore is set to release a debut album on New Amsterdam Records / Ten Spot Records on August 1st this year.
BlackGate, named after the Galway cultural centre and recording space which funded the album, was features cellist Kate Ellis, harpist Lavinia Meijer, and Caimin Gilmore on double bass & DX7 synth.
The instrumental release features the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer passages alongside the organic instruments.
Listen or watch the video for album track ‘MVE III’ here:
Caimin Gilmore – BlackGate is available on Limited Edition 10” vinyl, cassette & digital. Each record is housed in a custom made, lithographically printed, deluxe 10” Tip-On gatefold jacket produced and hand packed by Ten Spot Records with layout by M&E Studio Sweden.
“The DX7 has unlimited variations in ways to express yourself, and I think that was my attraction to it. I noticed how similar manipulating the sound on the synth was to playing an acoustic instrument—manipulating the sound of the oscillators felt very similar to what I do with my bowing hand to change sound.”
Caimin Gilmore.
Formed in Dublin and focusing on artists based in Ireland, Ten Spot Records produces small, beautiful batches of limited edition 10″ albums made to the highest audiophile standards.
The album was recorded and edited by Adrian Hart with additional recording from Ber Quinn in Sonic Studios, Dublin and Sam Jones at Studio Joneski, Utrecht. Mixed and mastered by Francesco Fabris at Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavik. Vinyl cut at Air Mastering Studios, London by Barry Grint at Half-Speed. Pressed on 100g 10” vinyl at Optimal Media, Germany. Everything has been designed and mixed to be listened to on record with vinyl production and management by Dek Hynes at Ten Spot Records.
A limited edition set of notated pocket scores of BlackGate will be available to purchase alongside the vinyl, exclusively at Rough Trade stores throughout the UK.
Hand numbered and limited to 500 copies available online at: www.tenspotrecords.com (Ireland/EU), www.newamrecords.org (USA), www.roughtrade.co.uk (UK) and more
About BlackGate
“There has been a long lineage of non classical artists working primarily in ‘commercial’ music who dig from the contemporary classical music well & also write it,” says Gilmore. “For me, the first time the idea that this cross pollination was rigorously happening was listening to NewAm Artistic Director William Brittelle at Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival (Cork) in 2019, chatting about ‘genre fluidity’ in music on a panel discussion with curator Mary Hickson.
I ended up doing an impromptu gig alongside William and the musicians he had brought over to the festival to perform his music. That interaction cemented, and made sense of, how ‘classical’ composers and musicians were also working in genre-fluid ways internationally and this gave assurance to the idea that my musical ideas, amassed performing across genres, had credibility as a notated work also.”
On creating the work, Gilmore explains: ”I was interested in writing a piece that lived somewhere—harmonically and structurally—between indie and minimalist music; using extended string techniques to create a spectral sound world. At the time I was playing and jumping across a broad range of styles—contemporary music, folk/Irish traditional music, playing in indie groups, and symphonic repertoire with orchestras. I felt that the playing techniques I was using across these genres were transferable, and the diffuse sonic worlds were conducive with each other–they could live together if it was a reflection of how I approached them, or maybe how I understood them. It felt most natural to me to write something with this cross pollination of genres in mind. BlackGate as such became a natural reflection of the different types of music and people I was performing and collaborating with at the time of writing it.”
BlackGate was commissioned by The BlackGate Cultural Centre (Galway) using funds from the Arts Council of Ireland. The commissioners intention was for Gilmore to create a genre-fluid amalgam and reflection of his multifaceted career. The work was written, notated, and recorded over the course of a year-long residency for Dublin City Council. It had its world premiere at Kilkenny Arts Festival (IRL) in 2024 and a further performance as part of New Music Dublin Festival in the National Concert Hall of Ireland, March 2025. It will receive its US premiere on July 21st at the PS21 Centre for Contemporary Performance (Chatham), from Lavinia Meijer and celebrated American cellist Clarice Jensen.
About Caimin Gilmore
| Caimin Gilmore is a member of Irish new music group Crash Ensemble. He has recorded or shared the stage with: Zach Condon, Squarepusher, Bernard Butler, Shahzad Ismaily, The Staves, Justin Vernon, Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Thomas Bartlett, Anais Mitchell, Phoebe Bridgers, Dirty Projectors, Kate Stables, Tom Fleming, Alabaster de Plume, Sam Amidon, Greg Saunier, Dionne Warwick, s t a r g a z e & Irish acts Gavin James, Dermot Kennedy, Colm Mac Iomaire, Lisa Hannigan, Damien Dempsey, Kodaline, Loah, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Lisa O’Neill, Ye Vagabonds, John Francis Flynn, Jessy Buckley, Cormac Begley, John Sheahan, Tolü Makay, Niamh Regan, David Kitt, Anna Mieke, Rachel Lavelle, Saint Sister, Ships, Stephen James Smith, Participant, Lemoncello, Niamh Bury & Hard Rain Ensemble. He performs regularly with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland & celebrated Irish Dance Company Teac Damsa. |
| Gilmore is currently touring with Irish bands Ye Vagabonds & John Francis Flynn (Rough Trade/River Lea). He features on over 40 recordings, including releases from Damon Albarn, Boygenius, and on Leonard Cohen’s posthumous album ‘Thanks for the Dance’ with European ensemble s t a r g a z e, among many others. |
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
