A quarter century of sound
It’s been 25 years since pioneering sound art/improvisation duo The Quiet Club began their extraordinary journey in Cork, and they plan to mark that milestone in style this month.
On 25 June, Mick O’Shea and Danny McCarthy will perform a special quarter century anniversary concert at the Boole Library, UCC.
On the night, they will be joined by acclaimed dance/movement artist Sophie Hutchinson and percussionist Solamh Kelly, all of whom, Mick and Danny included, will be dispersed throughout the audience, bringing another layer of depth and immersion to the performance.
Though they have many acclaimed recordings under their belt, it is well known that the only way to truly understand and appreciate the art of The Quiet Club is to experience their magic live and up close.
Formed in 2006, the Quiet Club have enjoyed considerable success over the years, gaining recognition as one of Ireland’s leading sound art/improvisation groups. They have toured extensively in Ireland and have played at festivals in UK, Germany, Poland, Canada, China, USA, and Japan.
Known for their tireless dedication to pushing the boundaries of sound making and listening, O’Shea and McCarthy employ a wide, weird, and wonderful array of devices in their work, ranging from stones, homemade instruments, electronics, amplified textures, turntables, theremins, field recordings, and much more.Their first CD, ‘Tesla’, was released on Farpoint Recordings and is now considered a collector’s item by many, with one of the tracks appearing on ‘Wire Tapper 23’, a special CD compilation of experimental, underground, and left-field music attached to issue 314 of the UK's legendary The Wire magazine in 2010.
In Ireland, they regularly appeared on Bernard Clarke’s radio programme, 'Nova', on Lyric FM, and more recently on 'The Blue Of The Night', also Lyric FM. Here on Leeside, some of their work featured in a major exhibition called ‘Strange Attractor’ in the Crawford Gallery Cork in 2011.
In 2016 they were awarded a major funded residency by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to spend two months in the Rauschenberg Foundation Studio’s in Captiva, Florida. Whilst there, they recorded their CD ‘No Meat No Bone’ which was also released by Farpoint Recordings.Early in 2017, the tenured Cork duo took part in an extensive Irish tour funded by Music Network where they appeared alongside the duo crOw (Ian Wilson and Cathal Roche) as a follow up to their release ‘As The Quiet Crow Flies’, also available from Farpoint.
Most recently, the lads have performed numerous concerts in Cork in 2025, including at the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, Plugd Records, and The Guesthouse Project, and most notably organised ‘Site Of Sound’, a hugely successful event incorporating dance and movement in St Coleman’s Cathedral in Cloyne, East Cork.
The Quiet Club will perform in the Boole Library, UCC on 25 June at 7pm. Tickets cost €13.50 and are available via Eventbrite.ie.