10 to see at Sounds From A Safe Harbour in Cork this weekend
Cillian Murphy in Steve, several sets by Conor O'Brien of Villagers, and a tribute to the late Eoin French (Talos) feature among the highlights of Sounds From A Safe Harbour in Cork.
Sounds from a Safe Harbour returns to the streets, stages, and secret corners of Cork City this weekend (Thursday to Sunday) for its 10th anniversary. Curated by festival director and Fermoy woman Mary Hickson, actor Cillian Murphy, Bryce Dessner (The National), writer Max Porter, and folklorist Billy MagFhloinn, there will be the usual popup shows and special collaborations (artists in residence will spend the first half of the week working on new material together, debuting it over the weekend), blending the epic and the intimate, the poetic and the political.
Organisers warn that, due to tight scheduling, gigs will be starting on time. Get there early.
The Cork musician and artist Eoin French died at just age 36 in August 2024. As Talos, he released three albums from 2017-2022; a posthumous release with Olafur Arnalds, was released in July. French was also a member of the Sounds from a Safe Harbour team. In collaboration with Marymount Hospice, a huge team of collaborators and singers will come together at the Opera House to pay tribute to French.
The enigmatic Kerry singer launches his brilliant third album, The End, inspired by fairy forts and horrified by events of the modern world. He says: “The sound of the album is supposed to take the organic instruments of Irish traditional music and lift them somewhere else.”
Zimbabwean-Irish rapper God Knows - a serial collaborator who fits right in with the SFSH ethos - releases his debut solo album on September 26, with Cork crowds getting a preview on Friday night. “While reflecting on my journey of life, I was taking stock of how far I had come,” he says.
Cillian Murphy has been a collaborator with SFSH since the initial sailing in 2015 and heads up a starry film programme at this year’s festival. A week ahead of the release of his new film on Netflix, it will be screened in the Arc Cinema, with a Q&A alongside writer Max Porter and director Tim Mielants at the Opera House.
starring Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones, is released in November and gets a showing at the Arc (9pm, Saturday), with a Q&A afterwards with film score producer Bryce Dessner. directed by TwoPair Films, is “a visual montage of the various streams of influence that flowed into” the music of Walsh, who died in 2016.
Vanishing Arcs are a techno duo comprising Villagers’ Conor O’Brien and Kieran Lombard. They’ve only played a couple of shows together and are yet to put any music out, but this is the start of something special. Bring your dancing shows for their debut Cork show.
Rhiannon Giddens, a Grammy Award-winning composer of opera, ballet, and film, brings her fearless, genre-bending folk to the Opera House with guest Francesco Turrisi. A MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, she digs deep into America’s musical roots.
Dakhabrakha hail from Ukraine (their name means Give/Take) and draw on rhythms and melodies from India, Arabia, Africa, and Australia. With pounding percussion, bass, distorted guitars and flashes of jazz, rap and punk, they call their sound “ethno chaos” - a vibrant blend linking Ukraine’s traditions with global influences.
French singer-songwriter Mina Tindle and This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables join forces, joined by guests Ben Lanz, Bryce Dessner (Tindle’s husband), Villagers’ Conor O’Brien, Olivier Marguerit, and Thomas Bartlett. Luminous vocals guaranteed.
Danish trio Efterklang played Live at St Luke’s as part of SFSH 2019 - an amazing, stirring afternoon show - and return to host the festival finale on Sunday night. Expect work that has been created over the course of the week to get an airing and the stage to be overflowing with guests.
As well as music and film, SFSH is offering a visual programme that ranges from Dorothy Cross’s Kinship Home, a moving meditation on returning a mummified body to Egypt, to Yvonne McGuinness’s ritual-inspired installation The Well. Works by Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Paul Gaffney and the Dillons Cross Project are on display in various venues. American artist David Shillinglaw has been working on a mural at Bakestone, the Perry Street
cafe that's also hosting food events, and the festival merchandise stall.
