Bio

 Through his ambient compositions and works, composer Tony Monahan explores the connection between sound, space and the free-flowing unpredictable sounds of our surroundings. This exploration has most recently been illustrated through a number of multi-speaker sound installations and on his debut album of solo works,  'Awaken', released April 2024.

 A guitarist, composer, producer and educator of considerable experience, Tony has toured internationally, appeared at numerous music festivals and produced a number of recorded works, most notably with the band Protobaby and alternative duo Pity Of The Sea.

Music he has writtten, co-written, recorded and produced has appeared on both local, national and international radio.

In 2022 Tony undertook an MA in Composition and Creative Music Practice at the Irish World Academy, Limerick to explore his own ambient compositions. This gave Tony the space to focus on the ambient elements he had brought to the compositions of the various acts he has worked with. Delving deeper into ambient music, generative music and freeform improvisation through observation. He completed the MA in August 2023 and this led to recording his solo debut album 'Awaken' which was released on April 26th, 2024. 

In October 2023 Tony began a practice with transcendental poet and singer Óscar Mascareñas, exploring freeform ambient improvisation.
This new project 'Aire' will explore the mediative effects of improvisation through observation, the connection between sound, space and the free-flowing unpredictable sounds of nature.

Tony received the arts council of Ireland's Agility award in April 2024.  This award was approved to undertake  a  further exploration of  connections with nature and sound by taking the Aire improvisation  practice outdoors. The concept was Aire would improvise outside free from any physical connections to electricity, in an isolated area, while participants explored the outside space, listening on wireless heaphones.  This project was succesfully completed in November 2024 in the Burren, Co.Clare.  Videos of this project appear in the Aire section of this website.

Picture @Elaine Tucker