- Culture
- 24 Feb 21
‘My Mother’s Star’ from ambient musician and filmmaker Myles O'Reilly will land on all digital platforms March 23rd, 2021.
Dublin-based musician, filmmaker, and director Myles O'Reilly has announced his third album of ambient music under the moniker [Indistinct Chatter].
O'Reilly was previously part of the band Juno Falls, who signed for two albums by Sony UK and then V2 records in 2003 before disbanding in 2010. Ten years later and in a global pandemic lockdown, Myles returned to making music and has since composed, recorded and released a plethora of works in the 'ambient' music genre under the moniker [Indistinct Chatter].
My Mother's Star follows 2020 albums Cabin Lights Off, Tall As Houses and Sri Lanka Dreaming.
While we're waiting for My Mother’s Star to arrive on March 23rd, O'Reilly has shared the first taster in the form of track ‘Your Excitement’.
Released on Myles’ mother’s birthday, the track celebrates her profound presence in his life.
Advertisement
“Due to the pandemic lockdown measures of January 2021 I found myself in the studio again," Myles says of the project's genesis.
"The process of making myself create a new sound every day was a routine that was key to nurturing my mental health and well-being at that time. I did a lot of experimenting with generative modular patches, looking to create happy accidents.
Increasingly through the process, there would form thoughts and memories of my mother," O'Reilly adds.
"Inside the notes, scales, and sounds, her presence became ever more pronounced. I would then start each day with a meditation on her and begin creating sounds informed by the feelings that surfaced. During the lockdown, some days were uninspiring and revealed nothing to me at all, but it was the practice of trying that always meant I was closer to hitting on something positive. A total of eight times the energy and warmth of her love would shine through the sounds I was generating like a gap in the clouds, and it's those moments that have resulted in the upcoming album, My Mother’s Star."
While recording the album in January's lockdown, the artist did a lot of walking around Dublin city centre listening to mixes. The one track that resonated most heavily with that eerie sense of empty Dublin streets was 'My Excitement'.
The atmospheric song soundtracks Myles’ short film ‘Essential Services’, in which he casts a lens on essential service retail outlets open in Dublin's city centre during the level 5 lockdown of January 2021.
The video was filmed entirely on his phone over a few evenings in between the hours of 4pm and 6pm, at a time the inner city would normally be experiencing a throng of rush-hour traffic.
Advertisement
Since first lifting a camera in 2010, multitasking O'Reilly has filmed, directed and edited over 100 music video promos and over 20 music documentaries of Irish musicians at home and abroad, some of which include Glen Hansard, Villagers, Imelda May, Lisa O'Neill, Ye Vagabonds, Sinead O’Connor and Lisa Hannigan.
O'Reilly has also worked alongside other international artists such as Ernst Reijseger, Icelandic artists Soléy, Múm and Amiina, US soul phenomenon Janelle Monae and UK folk trio The Staves.
Catch O'Reilly's performance of an ambient film score live to footage of the Sheriff Street Flats at the upcoming St. Patrick’s Festival from March 12th to 17th.
Listen to 'Your Excitement' below: