Culture File

The Comfort Zone: musician, composer and improviser, Olesya Zdorovetska encourages Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy to encounter the many freedoms offered in Ornette Coleman's 1959 free jazz throwdown/manifesto album, The Shape of Jazz To Come. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Simon Reynolds has made a habit of writing books that offer to rethink the histories of popular music, such as Rip It Up and Start Again, his keywork on Post-Punk, and his story of electronic dance music, Energy Flash. Now, he's back with a highly personal history of the shapes of music from 1984 to 1994, from the hazy 'snowdrift' assaults of My Bloody Valentine, to the paraslacker aesthetics of T...

The Comfort Zone: writer, Emma Dabiri invites Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy to get with the subversive allure of Carl Anderson's Judas, and other hidden treasures in the 1973 film version of the Rice and Lloyd Webber musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing up on tour with Neil Diamond gave Daisy Press a unique outlook on the magic and mysteries of music, and started a journey that leads from Indian Ragas via the 12th century chant of Hildegard von Bingen -- all the way to the engaged minimalism of Frederic Rzewski, whose work she performs at this weekend's Louth Contemporary Music Society festival, Coming Together. See omnystudio.com/listene...

A soft walk with artist, Ciara Rodgers, whose soft sculpture will scatter through the streets of Cork Midsummer; writer and performer, Day Magee on their bus stop-set performance, On The Way: An Artist's Sermon; the latest postcard from the islands from Patrick O'Laoghaire See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comfort Zone panel pick some things worth your time, with Colm Tóibín opting for Raphael's Young Man Carrying an Old Man on His Back (at The Met, NYC, but also on the internet); Luke Clancy bigging up The Cosmic Tones Research Trio's eponymous second album of neo-cosmic jazz; and musicologist, David Beal suggesting João Gilberto equally eponymous collection of shimmering whispery bossa, João G...

The Comfort Zone: writer, musician and archivist, David Beal leads Colm Tóibín on a rumba/cha cha into the music of Congolese guitar hero, Docteur Nico. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Orit Gat wanders the many venues of this year's Venice Biennale of contemporary, catching boycotts, footballing triumphs and work from Irish artists Isabelle Nolan, Rachel Fallon and Alice Maher. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture File | 1990s teenage trance prodigy and superstar DJ, James Holden on lighting out for the territories of modular synthesizers, spiritual jazz, Moroccan ceremonial music and Live Coding. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comfort Zone: Playwright and performer, Dagogo Hart introduces a classic of Nigerian hip-hop into the Zone, in the shape of M.I Abaga's 2016 "Illegal Music 3" mixtape See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marking your cards for some time well spent, Colm Tóibín suggests getting down to zero with Shostakovich's last string quartet; Canadian poet, Karen Solie points out Nathalie Léger's 2012 book, Suite For Barbara Loden, to be enjoyed along with Loden's 1970 classic, Wanda; and Luke Clancy is learning to assemble a soundsystem in the Moroccan outback with the help of director Óliver Laxe's 2025 film...

In Dublin, an armoury of sonic devices are improvised and repurposed by Abbas Zahedi, including a commercial sonic weapon called an LRAD, which the artist has converted to broadcast poetry; then some we're-just-going-to-go-ahead-and-call-them post-appalachian sounds from the fiddle and the banjo with Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman; and for dessert, an island postcard from Inishturk by composer a...

The Comfort Zone: artist and performer, Rónán Ó Raghallaigh asks Colm and Luke to focus on the work of French-American band, Gorjira's album, Fortitude, in a conversation that touches on metal's relationship with trance and pre-Christian Irish traditions of imbas forosnai, as well as the politics of noise, wind turbines, Prof. Ivor Brown, and Californian gay biker culture. See omnystudio.com/liste...

The Shortwave Orchestra is a collection of experimental musicians who came together to play for the first time in Dublin in April. Following their world premier performance, Culture File convened a panel featuring Orchestra members, Aileen Wallace, Bryan O’Connell, Dennis McNulty and Orchestra instigator, Touch's Mike Harding, to talk about the modular synth scene, endangered communities and survi...

The Comfort Zone's Colm Tóibín suggests reading a new literary biography by Nicholas Boggs, Baldwin: Alove Story; artist Harold Offed thinks a trip to your local Brazilian foods store would be a solid idea; and Luke Clancy recommends Emily leBarge's art 'n' trauma memoir, Dog Days. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comfort Zone: TS Eliot Prize-winning Canadian poet, Karen Solie suggests our present moment might be an apt time for Colm Tóibín, Luke Clancy and everyone else to read Jim Thompson's nasty and hilarious Southern novel of crime, corruption and excrement, "Pop 1280". See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Y'know, Cecil Taylor is way easier to enjoy if you slow it right down, and other insights from composer, musician, and .25 speed YouTube clip enthusiast, claire rousay.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you coming for an echtra, or ancient Irish outing to the otherworld, with artist Louis Haugh? Paddy Woodworth is waiting within, the greatest ever photobook of Costa Rican caterpillars in his hands; and Welsh triple harpist Cerys Hafana recounts a harp journey away from everything that is high, washy or angelic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why you need to see Truong Minh Quy's film, Viet and Nam, listen to Connie Converse's album, How Sad, How Lonely and read Tove Jansson's Finn Family Moomins. Colm Tóibín, Meghan O'Gieblyn and Luke Clancy have their reasons. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comfort Zone: Helen Flanagan of "art hag" duo, Spooky Beore, suggests Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy spend some time contemplating the hand bells of medieval Ireland, and their many unintended uses, including in the laying on of curses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comfort Zone: Helen Flanagan of "art hag" duo, Spooky Beore, suggests Colm Tóibín and Luke Clancy spend some time contemplating the hand bells of medieval Ireland, and their many unintended uses, including in the laying on of curses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canadian composer, Thierry Tidrow who features in this year's New Music Dublin festival on the strange history of Claude Vivier, the art of capturing online speech in music, and his attraction to making opera for children. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Legendary jazz vocalist Norma Winstone on learning to understand the voice as an instrument, the genius of bandmate, Kenny Wheeler, and how Drake became her most famous fan. Also, Paddy Woodwth awards Scott Weidensaul's Living on the Wind some cherished space on the Naturalist's Bookshelf. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comfort Zone: New York-born, Dublin-based fine artist and photographer Ishmael Claxton invites Colm and Luke to head to an imaginary, demon-and-talking-animal-filled Japan in the 14th century, to encounter a masterwork from the Japanese Disney, Studio Ghibli, directed by its founder, Hayao Miyazaki. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Composer, improvisor and evangelist for the power of children's music, Ríona Sally Hartman leads a tour of her musical world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.