Reception Weekend presents

Callahan & Witscher:
American musicians Jeff Witscher and Jack Callahan are known for their far-ranging work under various monikers and deep individual histories within noise, computer music, and new music circles. Joining forces to helm new music and contemporary composition label FLEA, the duo has recently produced a series of beguiling and forward-thinking compositions including The Past, Present And Future Of Experimental Music (Uncut GRM), Stockhausen Syndrome, and ISSUES (What Happens on Earth Stays on Earth), as well as video works and curatorial projects. Their collaborative work often experiments with transparent composition systems and the limits of our current music technology, sharing sensibilities with radio art, A.A. meetings, group therapy sessions, formatlist and fluxus generative poetry experiments, and Q&A formats. They probe into the purpose and meaning of experimental music and showcase tensions inherent to the communication of ideas—exploring what music can be in a world where almost everything is reduced to signals and information. Together, their alliance charts a path for truly avant-garde music in the 21st century. (Nick James Scavo).

Dunk Murphy:
Dunk Murphy has been composing, performing and producing electronic and acoustic music for over 15 years. Much of his work focuses on sound design, composition for film, theatre and gallery installation having had works performed in the Abbey, Lir, Dance Limerick, Kerlin Gallery Dublin, the ICA London, NYU, the Darklight Film Festival Dublin, Baltic Gateshead and the Cork Film Festival. He gained a 1st class honours Masters in Music Technology from UL where he focused on generative composition techniques. As recording artists Sunken Foal, Minced Oath and a member of Ambulance, he has had releases on the seminal Planet-Mu, Black Acre, D1, Acroplane, Front End Synthetics and Countersunk.
org. Championed by BBC1/XFM DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, Today FM’s Donal Dineen, Lyric FM’s John Kelly and the late John Peel, Dunk’s music covers a large area showcasing his deep knowledge of synthesizers, software processes, rhythm and traditional instrumentation. Dunk has performed his Sunken Foal Audio/Visual show on many international stages and festivals and regularly arranges instrumentation for songwriters Glen Hansard, David Kitt and Carol Keogh.

Callhan & Witscher:
”Jack Callahan and Jeff Witscher’s debut joint record, Think Differently, unravels like a musical midlife crisis. It interrogates their careers and the experimental scene but also feels like a long improv sketch, a self-aware simulation of two avant-gardists losing their head and going pop. Call it SoundClown performance art.”
Kieran Press-Reynolds – Pitchfork

Dunk Murphy:
”We get to meet all these people – like Dunk Murphy (Minced Oath/Sunken Foal) who would drive us from the airport and he’d have a bag full of cassettes on the floor you didn’t want to crush when you get in the car with your flightcases and then you find out he’s probably one of the best musicians on the planet ”
Autechre – Nialler9 (Droid)

Aonghus McEvoy:
“You can spend all your time chasing a single guitar line until it trails off into some distant ether or search the background for some obscured reflection that highlights the innate complexity of his work. His use of extended, droning guitar pieces highlights both his inherent understanding of the instrument and his ability to make improvisation appear carefully manicured.
Joshua Pickard – Beats Per Minute

Produced by David Lacey & Aonghus McEvoy

Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland

Reception, the long running Dublin-based series of concerts that focuses on cutting edge experimental music & performance will celebrate 9 years of activity with the second edition of ’Reception Weekend’ festival on February 14th & 15th at Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2 & Tengu, Dublin 1. 2025’s programme focuses on artists who explore temporality in unique ways & ranges from durational minimal compositions to ecstatic club music to free improvisation and outsider pop.

Since 2016 Reception has sought out new music & sound pieces which evade easy categorisation often blurring the lines between composition & improvisation, performance & installation. ‘Reception Weekend 2025’ is our most ambitious and wide-ranging programme to date bringing together composers and performers from 3 continents.

Over the course of the weekend Reception will present 4 concerts featuring Irish artists & musicians Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh, Susan Geaney, Dunk Murphy & Aonghus McEvoy alongside legendary minimalist composer Eliane Radigue (performed by acclaimed instrumentalists Rhodri Davies, Angharad Davies & Dominic Lash), Chicago footwork innovator RP Boo, New York experimentalists Jack Callahan & Jeff Wittscher, celebrated Japanese composer & sculptor Ryoko Akama and French guitarist & composer Clara de Asis.

Susan Geaney will present a new world premiere commissioned by Reception. The festival will also see the first Irish performance by RP Boo and the Irish premiere of Eliane Radigue’s Occam Ocean.

Weekend passes available at www.receptiondublin.com