Wikipedia

Draft:Mark O'Leary

Mark O'Leary is a Cork born based Guitarist, Author, Electronic Music composer. He was educated at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. Mark O'Leary is considered by some to be the most technically gifted and innovative guitarist Ireland has ever produced. The release of numerous CDs in the past 3 or 4 years has helped him gain a growing following not just in Ireland but abroad as well. His music is released on Leo records, Aucourant, Ayler, FMR, Creative Sources, Cleanfeed, Tibprod Italy, Re:konstruKt record labels. Levitation with Tomasz Stanko and Billy Hart has received global praise and received 4 stars in Penguin guide to Jazz. His cd Awakening with Steve Swallow and Pierre Favre has also been very well received. His cd On The Shore on Cleanfeed was in freejazz stef top 10 cds of the year and Ron Steed of IMC voted it his favourite cd of the 2007. His cd St Fin Barre's recorded in St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork has also been well received. His cd with Cuong Vu and Tom Rainey Waiting, which is a tribute to Irish Writer Samuel Beckett received 5 stars from Freejazz stef and strong reviews from BBC and The Guardian. The cd Television with Han Bennink on Ayler records has also been held as a serious statement in the evolution of guitar/drum duos. His duo with Sunny Murray also on Ayler has been widely praised also. He is also an electronic artist composing soundscapes that can be described as post-industrial ambient /Landscape three have been released on Portuguese label Creative Sources Skyshifter, Fabrikraum and 4 Urban Landscapes, the latter features environmental sounds from Cork City Centre, dialect/dialogue, stonecutting and poetry. He has performed in over 30 countries, in some of the most prestigious venues and festivals, including Kennedy Center, North Sea Jazz Festival, Knitting Factory, Tonic, Vortex, The Loft and Athens Euro-Jazz.

O'Leary specializes in post-jazz music but has also performed Norwegian and Swedish folk music with Nils Okland and Mats Eden and worked with electronic artist Gunter Muller and performed his contemporary classical works with Cikada string quartet. He has toured Europe as a member of Paul Bleys trio and played with King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, Jack DeJohnette, Peter Erskine, Joey Baron, Sunny Murray Tony Buck and Han Bennink. O'Leary's CDs have received favourable reviews from the British magazine Jazzwise, Downbeat, allaboutjazz, "the Wire" , Sunday Tribune and The Guardian. Mark also has the distinction of having played in duo with Paul Bley, Bobo Stenson and Matthew Shipp He has also performed with Percussionists Terje Isungset, Alex Cline, zev, Alexander Tarasov, Hans-Kristian Kjos-Sorensen and Senol Kucukyildirim He has also performed with trumpeters Kenny Wheeler, Cuong Vu, Tomasz Stanko, Thomas Heberer, Axel Dörner and Jeff Kaiser He has recorded and played with Tortoise drummer John Herndon in a trio with Matt Lux on a fine Leo records release Radio Free Europa. He has also played with Anders Jormin, Palle Danielsson, Michael Formanek, Arild Andersen Lars Danielsson Slava Ganelin and Henri Texier He has toured the Former Yugoslavia as a member of the Vasil Hadzimanov group He has performed in Poland with Tomasz Szukalski, Mihal Miskiewich , Marcin Oles and Barlomiej Oles He has played in a trio with the Akamoon rhythm section of Stephane Galland and Michel Hatzigeorgiu. He has worked with some of the major voices of jazz in BENELUX, Hein Van De Geyn, Teun Verbruggen, Jeff Herr, Jozef Dumoulin and Hans Van Oosterhut He also has worked and recorded with talented Danish musicians Jacob Anderskov, Stefan Pasborg, Jakob Riis, Soren Kjaergaard and Peter Friis-Nielsen He has worked with Finnish musicians Teppo Hauta-Aho Olavi Louhavuori Pepa Paivinen and Markku Ounaskari Mark has also performed and recorded in Turkey with Senol Kucukyildirim and collaborated with Erdem Helvacıoğlu on a soundscape concept recording.

Snow which was recorded in Istanbul and produced in Cork featuring Senol Kucukyildirim Can Ömer Uygan and Murat Copur is a concept album based on a novel of the same name by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk

Mark O'Leary II

In late 2008 Mark decided to move in a new direction musically, currently he is working on material in the Rock/Ambient/ and Post-Rock genre's. He has also switched from being a Left-Handed player to playing Right-Handed which gives his new material a fresh perspective. He is also continuing to compose and create electronic music on computer using field recordings with a focus on Urban Environments and their unique cultural, social, linguistic and historic qualities. Mark has also become an ambient guitarist of note creating soundscapes and soundfields by processing his guitar with delay/reverb in conjunction with E-Bow/Bow/Slide and various pedals. In July 2009 Mark created and performed a Sound Piece in celebration of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing at Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork. In August 2009 a new relationship with the prestigious Aucourant record label has culminated in the release of the cutting edge cd * Grønland which was recorded in Copenhagen with (Stefan Pasborg) on drums and (Jakob Riis) on laptop it features Ambient electronic material that takes its inspiration from Greenland.

Mark O'Leary III

Mark is working on a short movie production at the moment for which he is also composing the music, more are planned. He also plans to develop his unique installation concepts One of which, Shipping Forecast was premiered in late August 2009, another opVex a commissioned work was premiered at Wexford Opera House in November 2009 He has been composing and performing minimal techno, which incorporates elements of industrial and ambient music Mark is composing spoken word narratives that he will juxtapose with environmental soundscapes and other ambient sound pieces. opVex installation premiered in New York 2010. Installation pieces Metal and Laundromat were premiered in Varna, Bulgaria in April 2010. Participated in a recording project with Italian Sound Artist Domenico Sciajno, the music features sounds captured by Domenico in Sicily which were processed, edited and developed by Mark. A collaboration with Israeli Electronic musician Yair Etziony is also in the works.

Levitation-Mark O'Leary-Tomasz Stanko-Billy Hart

Levitation is a recording featuring Mark O'Leary on Guitar, Tomasz Stanko on Trumpet and Billy Hart on drums. The recording was made in December 2000 in Studio Fiona, Fermoy, County Cork, Republic of Ireland. The album had been well received, especially in Poland where it has received much airplay and positive reviews.

Awakening-Mark O'Leary-Steve Swallow-Pierre Favre Awakening was recorded at Studio Fiona, Fermoy, County Cork, Republic of Ireland on September 2000 and Features Mark O'Leary on Guitars, Steve Swallow on Electric Bass and Pierre Favre on percussion. Several of the albums original compositions have and continue to receive airplay globally.

Mark O'Leary IV

Mark has written a trilogy of novella's and a corpus of other literature, pensive musings, essays, theses, precis, analysis, treatise that will be published at a later juncture, some extracts including: poetry and essays have already been published as liner notes and appendages.

A concept album paying homage to the Apollo project has been released.

Mark has also done 2 works of Environmental recordings in his native Cork City as an adjunct to 4 Urban Landscapes. Nature and Markets are a set of audio kaleidoscopic sonic polaroids of Urban nature and commercial activity. He has also recorded a set of works with a maritime dimension using the harbour area of Cork as a sound-source.

Mark is also active on youtube. With a plethora of videos featuring original music and cinematic edits. 

He has been featured on several compilation albums, some of which have received distinction.

Early Background Ironically, as a child I had no interest in music. Albeit, at eight, I was a child prodigy author in primary school, I still write, and have written; poems, stanzas, narratives and liner notes for my albums, as well as an unpublished corpus of other literary works; Novellas, poetry, mainly short stories with diverging subject matters. Fiction predicated upon fact, fact predicated upon fiction, fiction based on fiction, fact based on fact, very Proustian. As Jazzwise Magazine mentioned in an article, Mark O'Leary, Ireland's best kept secret. Before I moved to LA, I was a session guitarist at fifteen, sixteen, all sorts of stuff; speed metal, pet shop boys, post punk, new wave, fusion, blues, rock etc, ironically, one of the bands we were doing pretty much what was on the blood sugar sex magic album by Chilli Peppers, that was at sixteen, this was in the leafy suburbs on an afternoon, that night I was playing with a band in a garage in an opposite suburb doing Brand X material. I would literally put on my Parka with the german flag embroidered on the sleeve, Cillian Murphy, when I was teaching him, had an identical one, and on my antiquated bicycle, he also had a similar one, I'm a Southside boy, but, I would travel all over Cork city and suburbs playing in bands, from some of the most deprived areas in the country to the most upper class; rain, hail and snow. Just before leaving for America I was a member of a band that had attracted the attention of a major label, I had to leave to finish Secondary School prior to attending Music School in LA. From Personal Communication Mark counts as his former guitar students; Academy Awards Best Actor Cillian Murphy, former members of Sultans of Ping, Ruby Horse as well as two students that had the distinct privilege of working with Marlon Brando.

Mark is director of Creative Hub, Tata & Tata, where; fashion, film, music, art, history and new age Zen intersect and synergize. He has also been producing Electronic Music he likes to describe as Post Kraftwerk. Albeit, it is also influenced by; Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada and Radiohead.

Discography

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References

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