Olan Monk: Songs for Nothing (Prelude)

Join us on Oíche Shamhna, Hallowe’en, for an evening of music from the forthcoming album ‘Songs for Nothing’ by Conamara artist Olan Monk with very special guest performers.

This will be a pre-release performance event as a prelude to the release of the album on November 7th on London label AD 93, celebrating these new songs and instrumental arrangements in the artists homeplace in the west of Ireland, and collectively welcoming the change of season into Samhain.

‘Songs for Nothing’ was written upon Olan Monk’s return to the west coast of Ireland. The album is imbued with the influence of sean-nós singing, Irish language songs in the “old style” that often proclaim tales of love, loss and landscape; and also heavily indebted to the late Sinéad O’Connor’s confessional songwriting. Reconstructing these influences through their unique perspective has resulted in a fragmentary album veering between collaged pop, machinic rock and slow airs, “dedicated to Conamara and all who have called it home”. The western, Atlantic-facing edge of Ireland has a particular feeling and energy, one that permeates the release: the granite pulsates, the ocean and sky reflect intensities, seaweed rots on shingle shores, plants bloom, ancient trees come up for air from the drowned forest in Galway Bay, the sun splinters through the low clouds.

The album’s title suggests a one-way transaction, an offering to the listener expecting nothing in return, but also a devotion to nothingness; and the realm of infinite possibility that springs from its well: singing out into a sparse landscape, which once was home to long-lost forests and communities.

A departure from Olan Monk’s previous, more electronic work, the instrumental arrangements of ‘Songs for Nothing’ delve deeper into the “gothic art rock” descriptor (as noted by Irish writer Eoin Murray, Anois Ós Ard), with elements of shoegaze, witch house, cloud rap and Irish traditional music bleeding through the walls of the studio. Never straying too far from the vocal refrains and guitar riffs of their previous collaborations over the past few years; from co-writing and performing vocals with fellow AD 93 act Moin on ‘Guess It’s Wrecked’ from their wide-reaching album ‘You Never End’ in 2024, performing in the same year on the acclaimed Princ€ss debut; to recording guitar on Maria Somerville’s 4AD debut ‘Luster’ and contributing guitar and production to Ghost Mountain’s Haunted Mound return on ‘October Country’, both released earlier this year.

‘Songs for Nothing’, in melding influences old and new feels at times absurd, but never ironic; it is from the heart, and its respect for song traditions and dedication to process are felt in two arrangements of older songs embracing this new trajectory: ‘Fate (Reprise)’ is an earlier recording reimagined as a doomer ballad with Maria Somerville singing in a duet, and ‘Amhrán Mhaínse’ is a Conamara anthem slowed down as a duo of accordion performed by Peadar Tom Mercier accompanied by heavy guitar drones.

Folding in other Irish neo-traditional expressionists and experimentalists, the record also features Michael Speers, Dylann Kerr, Aindriú De Buitléir, Risteárd O’hAodha and Róisín Berkeley. The addition of the tin whistle across the album, full of intention, captures the uncomfortable relationship between our love as a people for our traditions with a long-standing alienation from our own language and culture. ‘Songs For Nothing’ rejects today’s disconnect with this heritage; they call for us to collectively work our way back out of this void. Releasing just in time for the end of October, these are the songs for the Samhain.

Accessibility & Assistance

When booking your tickets, please let us know of any special requirements so we can make your visit as enjoyable as possible.

If you book online, phone +353 (0) 91 565 886 or email nunsisland@galwayartscentre.ie to let us know of any special requirements.

Olan Monk is a musician, performer and writer from Conamara, Ireland.

Their practice involves experimental and popular songwriting, performing as a solo act and in collaboration with other musicians, including recordings and performances with Actress, Ashley Paul, Elvin Brandhi, James K, Maria Somerville, Michael Speers, Moin, Princ€ss and Shampain. They co-founded C.A.N.V.A.S. with Lugh O’Neill as an events series and record label, established in 2018 to give collective agency to an increasingly dispersed community of artists.

Past releases include Love/Dead (2020) and Auto Life (2021) on C.A.N.V.A.S. and Dubplate 08 (2022) on AD 93. They contributed the single ‘Surf’ to Scenic Route’s The Road Less Travelled Vol. 2 compilation (2024) and feature on the single ‘Guess It’s Wrecked’ from Moin’s third album You Never End (2024), released on AD 93.

Past performances include appearances at Rewire, The Hague; Aiséirí in Leisureland, Galway; National Concert Hall, Dublin; the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast; cafe OTO, London; Barbican Hall, London; Institute for Contemporary Art, London; PAF Olomouc; EOS crossings, Frankfurt and throughout Ireland, England and continental Europe.

In 2025, they are touring as a solo performer, in a duo with the percussionist Michael Speers and in an expanded band format with musicians who have contributed to the making of their forthcoming album ‘Songs for Nothing’, scheduled for release on AD 93.

olanmonk.com