Hi. I'm rebuilding this site, and this'll be where I keep various art bits and bobs, but for now, here're some bio notes and samples. Thanks, Ciarán.

Ciarán Maher :: rhizomecowboy.com

I'm an Irish composer and installation artist based in Belfast. My solo work is strongly rooted in a formalist phenomenology (after Tenney and his reading of Cage), and my principal interests are in pitch perception, tuning, stochastics and the exposition of simple perceptible processes. I studied with James Tenney, Bob Gilmore, Frank Denyer, and Ronan Guilfoyle.

My main academic focus has been my friend and teacher, the American experimental composer James Tenney. I recently generated and premiered three newx Variations on his Spectral CANON for retuned player piano. You can hear the tests and read my notes here (requires Flash), and there's a live recording of Spectral Variation No. 1 on dnk-amsterdam's site. SOON TO BE RELEASED ON IMPORTANT RECORDS

I'm also working on a book of Jim's interviews. I hope shortly to publish some interview material in a couple of MusicWorks articles (you can find a previously published article in their back issues: "James Tenney on Intention, Harmony and Phenomenology — A Different View of the Larger Picture", MusicWorks Issue 77), and I'll then start to publish interviews on this site.

In recent years I've been working in a number of collaborations with artists from other disciplines – most significantly with the poet Caroline Bergvall. Together, we fulfilled commissions for MuHKA in Antwerp, the Liverpool Biennial, Spacex Galley in Exeter, and The Text Festival in Bury. We also worked together on her audio piece Via (48 Dante Translations), and on a transorfmation of her data piece Ampersand for the Text Festival and Tate Modern.

Caroline's site is at: www.carolinebergvall.com

For a while now, I've been using Flash to create environments for sound works through the spatial exposition of controlled random processes. Objects in the virtual space interact according to simple rules to produce sound. Recently, I collaborated with the artist David Haughey on a development of this work for the visonic festival, at the Void Gallery in Derry. You can check out VIsonic here.

David's site is at: www.davidhaughey.com.

I'm gradually putting together recordings of my music which i'll also upload here, and there'll be upcoming events as and when.

Meantime, give's a shout (massive email below).
Ciarån