Dylan and Able

The Dubliner releases Wabi-Sabi Soul on April 15, an ambitious one-track mix of 13 songs meditating on love, death and rebirth, recorded live to analogue tape in Orphan Recording Studio with Sean Coleman.

The first of two launches will take place on April 26, when there will be a special 3D listening event in The Lighthouse cinema, which will feature a specially commissioned 5.1 surround sound mix, and lyrics in 3D designed by José Miguel Jiménez.

Then on April 29, there will be a live headphones concert in Dun Laoghaire library. Attendees will enjoy a performance of Wabi-Sabi Soul in a more intimate environment. Dylan will collaborate on stage with musicians from the album, two sound engineers and lighting designer Aedín Cosgrove.

An in case you’re wondering (because I was), wabi-sabi is a Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.

Continuing on an experimental note, Solar Bears raised the roof in Whelan’s recently, as they launched their incredible new album, Advancement. Made over the course of a year in many different locations, the record features heavily processed samples of indigenous instruments, which according to the accompanying blurb, mirrors “the widespread decay of the natural world.”

The duo of John Kowalski and Rian Trench have previously drawn from a sonic palette of krautrock, library music, psychedelic electronica and more.

Their love of cinema and experimental film has seen them develop a longterm collaborative relationship with the American director Michael Robinson, who has created two videos and the artwork to accompany Advancement.

In other album news, Limerick’s Protobaby have just unleashed Cosmic Heart, the band’s first effort since the return of frontman Colm McGuinness in 2015. The follow-up to 2012’s The Spark. the new gem is available on limited edition blue vinyl and CD. The vinyl version, meanwhile, contains a bonus track – a cover of the Depeche Mode classic ‘Enjoy The Silence’….

Elsewhere, in single news, Jennifer Evans releases ‘Bakkos’ on May 6. The new track is a tale about “the narrator passing an internal self-judgment on their own indulgence in an imaginary Bacchanalian court”, and is accompanied by an excellent video directed by Matthew Stylianou.

Niamh Crowther’s new EP featuring the singles ‘Little by Little’ and ‘I’ll Be’ is available to download now. Since winning our hearts at the age of 16, Niamh has supported PictureHouse, Blink and Mundy, and wowed crowds at LeCheile, St Patrick’s Festival and A Night for Pieta House in the Olympia Theatre. She plays in Dublin on April 15 with Picture This, for the IMRO showcase at MusicTown in Nandos, St Andrew Street. A feast for the stomach and ears!