Rosarium

 

Rosarium is the third solo album by English composer, Daniel O’Sullivan. After releasing two albums of experimental songwriting (VELD, 2017; Folly, 2019) and four instrumental collections for the KPM Music Library, O’Sullivan has devoted the past five years to composing a suite of chamber music for the Belgian classical ensemble Echo Collective. The result is a mosaic of self-possessed, elegantly latticed arrangements for strings, woodwinds, piano, harp, choir, and percussion, sculpted with a deep emphasis on texture and counterpoint. 

Drawing on a period of solitude, introspection, dream journaling and the insight of raising young children, the influences on this music can be felt more as an internalised elegy rather than musical ancestry. The title of the work is an homage to the mystery schools from Greco-Roman antiquity to modern day psychedelic research and ethnobotany. 

There is an opaque sonic lineage at work here as meticulous intervals and shapes are dreamt and sought, mirroring elements of high renaissance music, the late orchestral suites of Duke Ellington, modern sacred music, village green minimalism and hauntological English wyrd. Rosarium is a hybrid music and a new benchmark for O’Sullivan who has diligently scouted musical treasures for over two decades. 

 Rosarium was recorded at Decca/Jet Studios in Brussels and engineered by Timothy Lewis aka Thighpaulsandra of Spiritualized, Coil, etc. Alongside Echo Collective the ensemble on Rosarium is augmented by American multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick, English vocalist Astrud Steehouder, and poems read by O’Sullivan’s daughter Ivy. 

Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis, London

Composed by Daniel O'Sullivan 

Performed by Daniel O'Sullivan, Peter Broderick, Astrud Steehouder and Echo Collective 

Peter Broderick • Voice and Bass Synthesizer 

Margaret Hermant • Violin and Harp 

Yann Lecollaire • Bass Clarinet and Baritone Saxophone 

Neil Leiter • Viola 

Annemie Osborne • Cello 

Daniel O'Sullivan • Voice, Piano, Drums, Bass and Flute 

Ivy O'Sullivan • Narration 

Astrud Steehouder • Voice 

Thighpaulsandra • Modular Synthesizer 

Recorded at Jet Studios, Brussels 

Mixed by Thighpaulsandra at Aerial Studios, Carmarthenshire 

Cover illustration by Jenny Hirons 

Photography by Lewis Hayward 

Design and layout by Mark Titchner 

Published by Mute Song

Order from House Of Mythology here

Fourth Density

Dear world, here's the second in a series of LP's made for the KPM Music Library issued on vinyl by VHF Records. Fourth Density is out September 23rd 2021. Pre-order, sounds and semantic inquiry into the hermetic nature of library musick over here. 

Also check out Ivy's trailer. 💙

Electric Māyā

Dear world, here's the first in a series of LP's made for the KPM Music Library issued on vinyl by VHF Records. Electric Māyā: Dream Flotsam and & Astral Hinterlands is out October 23rd. Pre-order, sounds and semantic inquiry into the hermetic nature of library musick over here.

 

The Colour Of Entropy (In Three Stages)

I have a new record coming out. A fourteen minute song made of three songs. One red, one blue, one yellow. Primary school. Featuring Dream Lion and Echo Collective alumni, this music was made in response to a ring. A series curated by Sleeperhold Publications of Antwerp. Artwork and etchings by Felicia Atkinson. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. This will not be available on digital platforms for the time being. Limited to 350 copies.

Pre-order and audio link HERE.

 

Musick For Ark Todd

Music originally issued on a limited edition cassette by Strange Attractor Press to accompany a book of drawings by my dear friend and incredible multi-disciplinary artist, Ian Johnstone. Now available digitally from my bandcamp page.

Swarming Shapes: Musick For Ark Todd
By Daniel O’Sullivan

A: The Levitating Moon Piece
B: Black Egg / Orpheus

I wrote several pieces of music for Ian’s ‘Ark Todd’ static levitation performance over the years. Each setting provoked a different approach. The collaboration with Ulver at the Norwegian Opera house in Oslo was well documented but this particular version, composed for the exhibition of his Stab Wounds at the Horse Hospital gallery in Bloomsbury, has been resting dormant until now.

The second piece was a commission for The Place Theatre, also in Bloomsbury. An unfinished piece of choreography with dancer and vocalist Francois Testory. Like all of Ian’s work, this was a singular vision probing the human condition and meticulously scratching for truth under every surface.

Born in Cumbria, September 2nd, 1967, year of the goat, raised by his loving parents Herbert and Muriel Johnstone. He graduated in fine art at Middlesex university, where he cultivated Mr. Todd - a recurring performance motif hybridising the hunted fox, the poisoned seagull, the Edwardian philanthropist in Disneyland biting at the moon in perpetual levitation and static petrification. Partner of body artist Alan Oversby (Mr. Sebastian). Partner and muse of Geoff Rushton (Jjohn Balance). Made several costumes and artworks for Coil including Black Antlers, the Racing Green box and The Ape Of Naples. He performed live on stage with Mothlite and Ulver, the latter of which was a performance of Mr. Todd's levitation piece and The Leg Cutter at the Norwegian National Opera house. He was a radical permaculturalist, beekeeper and savant of medicinal plants. The main concern in his later years was Cantu Fermusu, Several acres of woodland in the Asturian mountains which he cultivated with Mikel Quirós. He was a master craftsman, discerning to the finest detail, humble and kind, self-critical and irreverent, in love with nature, at war with the patriarchy. A good animal, true to his animal instincts. He passed away under an Acer tree in Asturias, June 30th, 2015.

Order the book/tape here: strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/23-stab-wounds-julius-caesar/

Honour Wave in British Animation Awards

A few months back, The McLeod brothers surprised me with an animated video for a song called Honour Wave from my last album Folly. It's a beautiful dream world and now it's a finalist in the British Animation Awards. Good luck boys! I forgot to post it here, so check it out.

Under The Knife

View the new video for Under The Knife, the second single from forthcoming LP, Folly on O Genesis Recordings. Directed by the brilliant Daisy Dickinson.

Or listen on spotify and help me get my numbers up (how depressing). Incidentally, artwork is by the magnificent Ivy Wren O'Sullivan.

Folly

Listen to ‘Silhouette’: http://hyperurl.co/Silhouette-DOS

Pre-order the album: http://hyperurl.co/Folly-DOS

Daniel O'Sullivan has announced details of his new solo album, Folly, out on O Genesis Recordings on 5 April 2019 with the first track to be taken from the album, ‘Silhouette’: https://youtu.be/n1qau8VKN2w 

Folly is O’Sullivan’s second album under his own name and embodies a confident, evolution from his acclaimed debut VELD (2017, O Genesis), an album which distilled the multiverse into a rich and complex soundworld; textured and allusive, alive with sonic diversions, hypnotic mantras and ornately arranged songcraft.

The release will coincide with a two-night residency for The New Arts & Music Programme at Sutton House, Hackney. Set in the Arts & Crafts era wing of this Tudor manor house, using its early 20th Century Steinway grand piano, Friday 5 April will see O’Sullivan performing songs from Folly with his ensemble, with special guests from the O Genesis family, Richard Youngs and The Silver Field, supporting. Saturday 6 April will include a solo performance from Thighpaulsandra, who recorded and mixed the album while Daniel performs songs with guest appearances by Peter Broderick and Thighpaulsandra among others.

Folly was written around the birth of his son Ari and the passing of his friend Ian Johnstone, and both events were significant in the album that followed. O’Sullivan explains, “Joy is inseparable from suffering and sometimes those polarities arrive at the same moment. Music offers a vessel to contain the unspeakable.”

 This cycle of twelve songs deftly illustrates O'Sullivan's ascent as a unique and multidimensional songwriter. Moving from the familiar pantheon of experimental music and arriving upon a universal narrative probing the human condition from the inside out. Both lyrically and within the intricate lattice of arrangements, traditional forms are reshaped into transcendent pop symphonies. Both intimate and alien, archetypal and atypical, joyous and melancholic, the aperture of Folly is wide open and light streams in.

O’Sullivan explains the solo writing process, “Writing songs alone can take some time even if a song arrives fully formed in your mind. The execution of it involves long durations with each individual part of the arrangement until it reaches something concise. The song tells you what it needs and I try not to force ideas onto it.” and goes on to say, “These songs are outside in rather than inside out, there was always a latency between the birth of the song and my understanding of its purpose. Folly is looking at who is doing the shaping, most of these songs are about writing songs.”

Folly was recorded and mixed by Thighpaulsandra (Coil, Julian Cope Band, Spiritualized) at his Aeriel studio premises in Wales and mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy. Written mostly in London, O’Sullivan explains the inspiration for the title, “There's a folly of a medieval abbey in these gardens that surround where I live. My family and I spend a lot of time roaming around there, amongst the frogs, foxes, mushrooms, owls, and the many strange "introduced" plants and trees. It was landscaped to be a rabbit hole sort of place.”

Daniel O’Sullivan is a composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist living and working in London and has been contributing a vibrant, chameleonic brew to the music landscape since the late 1990's. He has achieved international acclaim writing, recording and performing with Grumbling Fur (with longtime friend and collaborator Alexander Tucker), Ulver, Sunn O))), Guapo, Miracle, Æthenor and the recent reincarnation of This Heat in the form of This Is Not This Heat.

5 April – London, Sutton House – with Richard Youngs and The Silver Field
6 April – London, Sutton House – with Thighpaulsandra and Peter Broderick

Folly is released on O Genesis Recordings on 5 April 2019