"Listening is and always has been at the core of The Quiet Club’s (Danny McCarthy & Mick O’Shea) work combined with their policy of not discussing the work before or after its performance this has been the hallmark of their practice.
Unable to listen to each other perform during the Covid 19 Lockdown the duo resorted to Telepathic Listening. Uninterested in Zoom, Facetime etc. the duo decided to each perform in their own separate studio’s miles apart at a given time on appointed days for twenty minutes. The concept was that then the two recordings would be combined together unedited.
On June 16th 2020 (Bloomsday) the artists inspired by Joyce, performed separately but at the same time and the recordings were then combined together unedited to form Telepathic Lockdown Tape No 7.
There are several other works in the series including one which they both played at 4:33pm as a tribute to John Cage. Telepathic Lockdown Tape No 9." - Danny McCarthy & Mick O’Shea
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All music by Danny McCarthy & Mick O’Shea
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Artwork design by Oliver Barrett
Formed in 2006, the Quiet Club have met with considerable success and have become recognised as one of Ireland’s leading sound art improvisation groups. They have toured extensively in Ireland and abroad. They appeared at World Expo (Shanghai), Mobius (Boston) and Harvestworks (New York), Café Oto London, Black Iris Gallery, Richmond, Virginia.
They frequently play together with guests, which in the past have included Mark Wastell, Stephen Vitiello, Mel Mercier, Steve Roden, Jed Spear, John Godfrey, Harry Moore, Iarla O’Lionard , David Toop, Pauline Oliveros and many others.
The Quiet Club continue to push the boundaries of sound making and listening by employing a wide range of sound making devices ranging from stones, homemade instruments, electronics, amplified textures, field recordings, etc. Their first CD Tesla was released on Farpoint Recordings (www.farpointrecording.com) and is now a collectors item. They regularly appeared on Bernard Clarke’s radio programme NOVA on Lyric FM. A major exhibition “Strange Attractor” featuring their work took place in the Crawford Gallery Cork in April 2011. A book and DVD of this work was launched last year and they made two London appearances to co-inside with the launch at the Pigeon Wing Galley and the renown Café Oto. An e book of their American tour is also available from Farpoint.
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 CD “No Meat No Bone” which has been released by Farpoint Recordings. The CD comes in a 7” gatefold cover which also contains especially written texts and photographs. It comes in a strictly limited edition of 147 signed and numbered copies.
Early in 2017 they took part in an extensive Irish tour funded by Music Network where the 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.
A new CD (limited edition) entitled “Black Iris” has been released on Farpoint. This is a recording of a live concert they did with Stephen Vitiello in the Black Iris Gallery and Studios in Richmond, Virginia as part of their American tour.. Currently the have an installation running in Lismore Castle Arts until the end of October Curated by Paul McAree Dir.
“The brilliance of the Quiet Club, the Cork-based 'entity' of Danny McCarthy and Mick O'Shea, is best apprehended live. Their CD, Tesla, is fascinating and enjoyable, but all the more so after watching their performance at the Goethe Institute in Dublin” Seán Ó MáilleJournal of MusicVol. 1 No. 2
