Delirium
All my music exists in the imagined world of Delirium. Each new work reveals a place or event in this imagined world. There are no characters in Delirium, rather each piece is the music of the world – of the stones, of the forest, of the mountains. Included at the beginning of each score (presented as a “programme note”) is either a piece of poetry or poetic prose. These are central to the on going narrative of Delirium.
As each person listens to music, and indeed experiences art, from the perspective of their own lived experience, I, as the composer the music which I ask others to experience, can not dictate to another what they see, or indeed hear, in my music.
As such, the poetry or poetic prose is offered as a guide to the listener as to what I experienced while constructing and writing the piece and what I wish to express through a given piece. To what end? As with all art, to communicate my own lived experience and to connect with those that experience my music.
Delirium is my own contribution to what I believe makes Irish Art unique – our long and storied tradition of storytelling. I wish to tell stories with my music but not those of swashbuckling heroes or great legends of fat monarchs. Rather, I present a dark, dangerous and beautiful world. Latent in each piece of Delirium exists a criticism of our shared reality – something, as a queer artist, is of central importance to my work.
Only in the spirit of Criticism can Art ever hope to aspire to the greatest ideal of Change.
From the Deep, Great beasts
Rise above the foam and sail skyward-
Bringing with them sweet rain
To silence the sullen soils
We start with the oceans. On Delirium, the natural processes, like the condensation of water vapour into rainclouds, take on the visual form of beasts - or Magïma. Magïma are the "creatures" of Delirium - they are the natural processes of the planet: the rain, the wind or the shifting of Delirium's tectonic plates. If you were to stand on the seashore and watch the oceanwaters evaporate, it would look as if great whaleclouds rose from the water and swam upwards into the atmosphere - only then to dissipate across the land as sweetened rain.
The Great Grass Sea
Endless at its own horizon
Sways in gentle murmurs
At the centre of the largest continent of Delirium lies the Great Grass Sea. Above the swaying long grass, myst roils thick and iridescent. Myst is the name of sound on Delirium. It is made by all things - plants, trees, stone, ice. Mystmusic is the result of the Magïma (the natural processes of Delirium) interacting with the myst.
Deliria, the great fungal tree,
Spreads its mycelium outwards and down:
Binding all the world
Into its ceaseless, sirensong
Deliria, the great fungal tree that gives Delirium its name, is a spore of a much larger entity that crash landed into the planet eons ago.
This organism has evolved to disperse its progeny out amongst the stars: each spore drifts through the cosmos until - by chance - they hit upon a suitable planet.
Once rooted, mycelium grow out and down through the entirety of the host planet. These sentient roots terraform the planet over time; breaking it down into the chemical compounds required by the organism to reproduce.
All life on Delirium began (and depends upon) this transformation.
When Deliria has drained Delirium of what it requires, it will erupt; casting out its spores to drift amongst the stars once again.
Wayward paths lead deep into the mountains:
their ends lost to all knowing
Vast mountain ranges stretch across the northern continent of Delirium.
Shrouded in Myst, these peaks stand silent and still.
Here be demons.
Magïma fly, flit and flee
Above the grasslands and
Amongst the trees
Life is abundant on Delirium - all of it connected to, and evolving from, the transformation brought about by Deliria.
Winged-creatures dance and swoop to catch small insects; their warbles echoing softly out across the low-slung valleys.
An Ghiorria runs across the open sky
Wrapped in Tangled Rainbows
Of rippling light
An Ghiorria (The Hare).
The impact of Deliria into Delirium created a second celestial body - the asteroidal moon An Ghiorria. Thrown out into an elongated elliptical orbit around Delirium, An Ghiorria can be seen running through the skies of Delirium every second, third, fifth and seventh year.
An Ghiorria is, in my music, many things. Sometimes, it is a symbol or metaphor. Then at times the hare takes physical form - driving the narrative of Delirium forward.
Mystclouds gather and form.
Greatwinged Magïma,
Ablaze in golden-firelight
Soar forth and crash to the ground:
The Orchard burns anew
At times, the myst gathers and condenses into great fireclouds of sound. They resemble a risen phoenix: translucent rainbows trailing from their wings. A natural and repeating process, these magïma fly to The Orchard (a maze of fruiting flora) and crash.
The Orchard ignites and is razed to the ground. From the ashes, these tress grow - waiting for the fires to come once again.