Natalia Beylis

Natalia Beylis’ music revolves somewhere between sonic story-teller and multi-instrumental explorer. She has released over 40 albums between solo works and collaborations and has appeared on numerous compilations. Her work parallels the lines of her surroundings: bird song, creaky trees, farm animals, the northwesterly breeze and rainfall. Lots and lots of rainfall.

Her solo compositions and improvisations are a unique calling of a Ukrainian born, American raised, Irish settled subconscious. The resulting sounds are a mix of garbled tape collage recordings, eerie mandola mantras and dreamscape piano voyages.

While she regularly records on a variety of traditional instruments (mainly pianos, organs, keyboards and mandola), she is just as likely to use non-musical sound sources within her compositions. For example, she recently released an album using just the sounds created by a domestic sewing machine.

In her live performances, Natalia layers seemingly incongruous sounds atop of each other to spawn strange juxtapositions and garbled parallels by exploring the sonic potentials of domestic appliances, found objects, cassette tapes and field recordings.

Natalia will deliver two workshops, curated for the Seán Corcoran Series, over the festival weekend. 
 
The first, on the morning of Saturday September 7, is a collective zine-making workshop with Rita Hynes of the Drogheda Zine Fair, inspired by the writing, community organising and activism of the late Drogheda historian Moira Corcoran. Participants will learn to make zines by engaging in creative story gathering, collaging, writing, and drawing from reused, archival, and shared materials.
 
 
The second, on the morning of Sunday September 8, is a listening workshop geared towards both novice and seasoned sound collectors, field recordists and those interested in finding new ways to engage with our everyday sonic landscape. All you’ll need is a digital or analog handheld recorder, or your phone, and an open ear! 
As part of a longer project with the festival, Natalia is working with the full circle bell ringers of St Peter’s Church of Ireland and St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church to compose a graphic score. 

This new composition will be played on the bells within the historic walled town of Drogheda on the Winter Solstice this December 2024.