Seán Carpio’s Wowos Tour

Seán Carpio’s Wowos Tour

Carpio tells The Journal of Music how his latest project came about, quoting Morton Feldman as influencing the compositional mentality of this new band.

Irish drummer and composer Seán Carpio (pictured) is leading a sextet of musicians on his first major tour as a leader, beginning 24 October. Carpio is widely known for his sideman work with Henri and Sebastien Texier and Louis Stewart among others, and more recently in mixed-media performance and even theatre.

The Wowos are: Carpio on drums, Dane Jeppe Skovbakke on bass, Belgian Joachim Badenhorst and American Edward Rosenberg III on tenor saxophones, with Dane Mikkel Ploug and local man Simon Jermyn on electric guitars.

Carpio told The Journal of Music how this latest project came about, quoting Morton Feldman as chiefly influencing the compositional mentality of this new band, and also, how it came about as a reaction to his previously writing increasingly detailed music: ‘You’ve got to consider the reality of the sound of what you are writing for… and the musicians that are playing (the music). It might seem like a simple thing to say, but it had never really been the core or impetus behind anything that I had written before.’

This tour will be only the second time that this band performs together and Carpio went on to explain how that first performance in 2009 challenged his own role:

‘Just before performing some of this music for the first time I realised that the drum parts were very sparse and basic… but when it finally came to the gig and I came in with the drum part it felt a lot stronger, clearer and honest than other things I had done before. It’s just a habit from being a modern jazz musician that you think that something else has to happen in the music — (but actually) it’s just whatever it takes to facilitate the music.’

The members of the band are old acquaintances; Carpio considers his personally-composed music as ‘a gift for them, so they treat it with a certain kind of respect or preciousness’, and that ultimately, the musicians are more important than any stylistic ‘prerequisites… the music is actually quite influenced by them.’

seancarpio.wordpress.com/wowos

26 October Project Arts Centre, Dublin. 8pm, Adm. €15/12 www.projectartscentre.ie

27 October Block-T, Dublin. Doors 8pm, Adm. €7 www.blockt.ie

28 October Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray. 8pm, Adm. €15/12 www.mermaid.ie

29 October Triskel Arts Centre, Cork (as part of Guinness Cork Jazz). 11pm Adm. €10/8 www.triskelart.com

30 October The Loft, Limerick. www.lockebar.com

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Published on 20 October 2011

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