Matthew Nolan is a Dublin based musician, music curator, and academic.
He has written a new score for Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 movie classic The Birds, which will be performed live at a special 60th anniversary screening in the National Concert Hall on Tuesday 7th November by Matthew with musicians Seán Mac Erlaine, Sharon Phelan and Eivind Aarset.
Matthew’s other live film score projects include Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Night of the Living Dead and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Matthew’s new score for the Russian sci-fi classic Solaris (co-written with Stephen Shannon) premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2022.
Frequently lauded as one of Hitchcock’s finest films, The Birds chronicles a terrifying avian assault on the residents of the town - a mysterious spate of violence that no one can explain...
We asked Matthew for his choice cultural picks...
FILM
His Girl Friday - I had to isolate recently, you-know-what struck again, and decided to revisit some old favourites. This was top of my list and what joy the Howard Hawks classic brought me. This film is 83 years old and yet still feels contemporary. It is laugh-out-loud funny but also dark and emotionally and morally complex. The chemistry between Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant is astonishing and even though the film is deeply cynical at times, occasionally rather bleak, it's the interplay between these characters which transforms the story into something else.
MUSIC
Joy Division - I have been listening to this band for over 35 years. My first listen came in the form of a bootleg on an old BBC cassette tape. It was a show from the Paradiso Club in Amsterdam, sadly one of their last. It was transformative and I still return to that recording when I need a creative reboot. This is creative expression at its most elemental and inspiring.
BOOK
I found myself at IMMA recently for an evening celebrating the life and work of Tim Robinson. It opened a portal into an extraordinary life and body of work. It got me thinking about our relationship with the environment which led me to pick up The Embers and the Stars by Erazim Kohak. It is a crucial statement about the need to reconcile the vital order of nature with the moral order of our humanity.
And following that moral thread, I am also reading the Elephant And Piggie books with my six-year-old. Simple tales about friendship and our duty of care to each other.
PLAY
I haven’t been to the theatre in many years. I need to put this right. My other half just saw Fun Home and said it’s brilliant.
TV
Every year or so I make a point of rewatching Veep or The Thick of It. It’s visceral, cynical, offensive, funny as f**k, and arguably the sharpest TV made in the last 20 years. It isn’t for the faint hearted but in an oddly perverse manner it’s kind of life-affirming.
GIG
I saw Codeine in Whelan’s recently. These guys play slow, real slow, and it’s so intoxicating. I’d waited 30 years to catch these pioneers of the slow-core movement from the early 90s. However, there’s a real post punk dynamic that is closer in spirit to the likes of Slint and the Louisville scene. What made this event particularly special for me was that I supported them alongside my dear friend and long-time collaborator, Adrian Crowley.
ART
I worked recently on a project called someone decides, hawk or dove, produced by the Solstice Arts Centre. This afforded me an opportunity to be part of an event co-created by the wonderful artist Niamh McCann. This creation, with music by Iarla O’Lionaird, seems to exist in this interstitial space where nothing is as it seems. You can experience this work at Old Bridge House, just outside Drogheda.
SolasNua present Niamh McCann's "someone decides, hawk or dove" Sep 7-30. Recipient of Norman Houston Commissioning Award. More @solasnua.org #artcouncil_ie #arts2023 #nib #cultureireland #solsticearts @nsf_ie @themacbelfast #niamhmccann #irishcontemporaryart pic: GStaley pic.twitter.com/IirkS6yWlq
— Niamh McCann (@Niamh__McCann) September 21, 2023
TECH
I don’t really have an app or website that I use regularly. However, Spotify is often used to distract my children on long car journeys. They get to dictate the playlist. Every journey seems to bring another new musical low.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
I Dreamed I Dream - This Cork based 5-piece are the best live band in Ireland right now.
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds - With Live Score is at National Concert Hall, Dublin on Tuesday, November 7th - find out more here.
