Heresy Records To Release New Composition/Video 'StampHaikuSong'

Heresy Records To Release StampHaikuSong A New Composition and Video By Irish Singer Caitríona O’Leary

Link To The Video https://youtu.be/4_2zpg5opjk

On Friday 12^th March 2021 Heresy Records will release StampHaikuSong, a 7-minute long composition and video performed by the critically acclaimed Irish singer, Caitríona O’Leary. StampHaikuSong will be released as a digital single and video on all major streaming and video platforms including, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. O’Leary, known as a singer and musicologist, composed and performed the music for the recording which also serves as the soundtrack to a video with art direction by graphic designer, Gareth Jones.

O’Leary’s composition and performance is inspired by a brilliant array of 17 Irish themed Postage Stamps and the minimalist poetry contained in The Stamp of a Haiku, authored by celebrated Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock. The short music video, with O’Leary’s vocal accompaniment, shows Irish personalities including James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, James Connolly, Countess Markievicz, and others.

Rosenstock describes the project as follows, “Postage stamps have been part of every nation's history and cultural expression and Ireland's stamps are truly distinctive. These haiku in Irish and English deftly perform the haikuist's task - opening our eyes to what has been there all along. The combination of the minimalist form which is haiku, and the smallness of a postage stamp concentrates the mind wonderfully. This unique project is something to sing about especially as our digital age - and the unstoppable rise of the courier and drone - has threatened to obliterate the humble postage stamp!”.

The project was made possible by an Arts Council Covid-19 Crisis Response Award.

ABOUT CAITRÍONA O’LEARY

Caitríona O’Leary (www.caitrionaoleary.com) is recognized internationally for her intense and passionate performances of Traditional Irish song and Early Music. Her recording of The Wexford Carols, an album of traditional Irish Christmas carols, with the producer Joe Henry featuring guest artists Tom Jones, Rosanne Cash, and Rhiannon Giddens and an all-star band reached #1 on the Billboard charts.

She is known for her Irish language interpretations of the songs of Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell for IMRAM (Irish Language and Literature Festival) and has recorded over twenty-five critically acclaimed albums with her band Dúlra, and the celebrated early music ensembles Sequentia, The Harp Consort, Joglaresa, eX and Anakronos. These have been for EMI Virgin Classics, BMG Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Heresy Records, Vox and Avie.

She has worked closely with many of early music's leading artists including, Christopher Hogwood, Ben Bagby, Andrew Lawrence King, Konrad Junghaenel, Pedro Memelsdorff, Hille Perl, Lee Santana amonst others.

Caitríona is also active as a soloist in contemporary music productions and recordings. In November 2016 she played leading roles in Roger Doyle's new electronic opera, Heresy and appears as a soloist on several of his recording including the recent release, iGirl.

Caitríona has toured and performed around the world, including such venues as the Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall and Cité de la Musique to name a few. She regularly performs at festivals throughout Europe and beyond and has also been commissioned - as music director - to create performances at numerous festivals including Halle Handel Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn,Tage Alter Musik Herne, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Festival Cervantino Guanajuato (Mexico), Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Concerts Spirituals Geneva, Zagreb Summer Evenings Festival, the Split Summer Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Belfast Festival at Queen’s, among others..