Fish Factory

Nicholas Miller is a composer, improviser, guitarist, and multidisciplinary artist. Their work is informed by jazz, magic, ecology, and performance art. They have performed internationally and collaborated with a huge variety of musicians and other artists. They hold degrees in jazz, guitar performance, and composition from the University of Denver, Utah State, and Oxford.

Harry O’Connor is an Irish composer and violinist. Harry’s own compositional practice is currently based around soundtracking nature and landscape, focusing within the idiom of jazz-inflected chamber and orchestral music. As a violinist, Harry has been involved with various groups and performers across many styles, ranging from historical performance practice to contemporary and avant-garde music. Harry graduated from the MTU Cork School of Music in 2021 with a BMus (Hons) degree. In September 2024, he graduated with an MSt in Music (Composition) from the University of Oxford.

When they arrived at the Fish Factory, both Harry and Nicholas were intrigued by the array of different instruments lying around the building, particularly the many electronic organs and keyboard synthesisers. Between them, a concept developed of using as many of these organs and keyboards as possible for the sake of a recording project, based around free improvisation. Over a period of roughly seven days, Harry and Nicholas produced a varied series of recorded improvisations utilising as many instrumental combinations as possible.

These recordings were catalogued, edited together, and used as the source material for a 40-minute vinyl LP album entitled GILDIA ORGANORUM HYPERBOREA. The LP, of which ten copies were cut at the Fish Factory, brings together just some of the improvised material across two 20-minute tracks. They also produced a series of ten cassettes under the same name, across which the near-total 3.5 hours worth of recordings are collected, with each cassette being a completely unique combination of recordings.

Having access to such a bizarre assortment of instruments was an exciting opportunity for combining play and technology. Along with the improvised musical material, the LP also features overlaid software instruments, recorded water sounds from the harbour in Stöðvarfjörður, as well as sound from the banging door of Iceland’s most northerly lighthouse in Hraufnhafnartangi.

Harry and Nicholas completed their residency period with a live performance showcasing the different instruments they used at the Fish Factory. Stöðvarfjörður provided the perfect setting for their project, and having access to such fantastic technology and recording facilities was a huge bonus. Working here felt like play, not work.

Nicholas Website: https://nicholasjcmiller.com/