Áine O'Dwyer

A composer and multi-instrumentalist who navigates liturgical, avant-garde, and free folk spheres, Áine O'Dwyer is best known as a harpist. While growing up in Pallasgreen, Ireland, she learned to play the tin whistle and flute in addition to piano and fiddle, later taking up the harp at age 11. O'Dwyer went on to study at the Limerick School of Art and relocated to London to pursue a Master's degree in Fine Art Media. Incorporating drone and ambient tendencies into much of her music, she released an album of improvised pipe organ, Music for Church Cleaners, in 2012. Featuring her elegant and intricate harp playing as well as some voice, Anything Bright or Startling? followed a year later. The eclectic Safely Adrift saw release in 2014, and 2017's Locusts and Gegenschein returned the focus to the pipe organ as primary instrument. Recorded in the shaft of the Thames Tunnel, Gallarais followed later that same year on Mie Records. ~ Marcy Donelson