Tomorrow night at 9:00 PM on Flirt FM’s Ambient Zone, I’m pleased to announce that we will have special guest Sean Cooney AKA Rarefish, who will be selecting some of his favourite music for the show. Rarefish recently released the album Amplifier, which is available now in Galway record shops. For those in the City, you can tune in on 105.6 FM.

Here’s the blurb from the Galway Advertiser, 9th September 2004:

Rarefish’s Ambient Electronica by Charles McBride

ONE OF the more intriguing local music releases to hit the shelves recently is Amplifier, written and produced by Sean Cooney under the nom-de-guerre of Rarefish.

The album comprises nine tracks of synthdriven ambient music, rather like a soundtrack in search of a film. Whereas most musicians bringing out their own albums tend to covet the limelight, Cooney prefers to keep a low profile.

“I’ve been playing music since I was eight,” he reveals, “and I think all those childhood demonstrations in front of relatives has put me off live performance for life! I’d rather be a producer than a performer. I’ve been writing a lot for a few years now, mainly on a hobby basis to begin with, but now I’ve decided to try and make something of it so I’ve put the CD into the local shops to see how it’ll go. The music on it is electronic but with a bit of a raw edge to it - in terms of musical influences I’d cite the likes of Depeche Mode or Vangelis.”

Cooney admits to having a keen interest in doing soundtrack work for film and television and part of his hopes for the CD is that it will stimulate interest from those quarters; “I’ve an interest in doing production work, I’m starting to learn all about the technology and software; it’s only in the last six to eight months I’ve seriously got into it. I’d really like to get into doing music for film or TV. While the CD is basically a mix of electronica and some grungy guitar, I feel I could broaden the sound palette if I was going to do a soundtrack. I’d also like to work with other artists, like opera singers or whatever.”

While most of the tracks are instrumentals, the closing number ‘Orpheus Existe’ features the voice of renowned linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky to which Cooney has added a soundtrack. “That track came about after I discovered a cassette I’d originally made about 10 years ago which I recorded off a documentary and used for a college project about propaganda and perception. When I found it again I thought ‘this is interesting, why not put some music to it?’ There’s a loose theme to the CD which is we can pick and choose what we want to listen to which is also what Chomsky is talking about.”

Amplifier is now in stock in local record shops. Check it out!