Short Films about Music, Sound, and Composition
The Harmonic Drift Composers Collective presents Short Films about Music, Sound, and Composition at 7:30pm on Thursday 9 April.
This event is free and open to the public.
The Harmonic Drift Composers Collective is a network of composers, sound artists, and music makers formed to support the development of new experimental work. The collective provides a platform for sharing expertise, peer mentorship, and creating opportunities for the presentation of new music in Leitrim and internationally.
Short Films about Music, Sound, and Composition will include screenings of four short films followed by a Q&A with collective members Sophie Cooper, Eimear Reidy, and Natalia Beylis regarding their practices and the film's relation to their work.
Tickets are available for free here.
Short Film Schedule:
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Title: Tumuli (Premiering at The Dock)
By: Orla McHardy
Soundtrack: Eimear Reidy
Runtime: 8 min 54 sec
Description:
Tumuli takes its name from the tumulus — mounds of earth and stone raised over graves. A mound, a heap, a stack: a burial site, a flowerbed in a back garden, a compost heap, a pile of dirty dishes.
Commissioned in 2022 by Hunter’s Moon, the film emerged from a collaboration between Orla McHardy and Eimear Reidy for a live event at The Swan Lake Inn, Effrinagh, Co. Leitrim. Drawing inspiration from her home and garden, McHardy created the visual world of Tumuli, while Reidy gathered field recordings onsite and composed a musical score in direct response to the film’s textures and rhythms.
McHardy, an artist based in the Northwest, works across expanded animation, video, text, documentary, collage, and sculptural installation. Her practice often engages questions of value and invisibility, particularly around the hidden time of care, love, and labour.
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Title: Forest/ry
By: Noelle Gallagher
Soundtrack: Natalia Beylis & Eimear Reidy
Runtime: 7 min 18 sec
Description:
Forest/ry observes a landscape in transition at Derryclare, on the edge of the Twelve Bens in Connemara. Noelle Gallagher follows the felling of Sitka spruce plantations, revealing the sharp contrast between industrial forestry and the neighbouring ancient oak forest — where dense, silent monoculture gives way to vibrant, biodiverse life.
Through atmospheric sound and imagery, the film reframes deforestation not simply as loss, but as a precursor to ecological renewal. As part of Gallagher’s wider Fractals and Jay Birds project, the film reflects on restoration, interdependence, and the delicate relationship between human intervention and natural systems. What emerges is a restrained but hopeful vision of regeneration rising from disruption.
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Title: Oh Boy! The Drums… Even More Drums!!
By: Willie Stewart
Runtime: 4 min 41 sec
Description:
This short film captures a solo drum performance by Willie Stewart, recorded across multiple locations in Leitrim and Roscommon in July 2020, shot by Natalia Beylis. Featuring an appearance by Rooster the dog.
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Title: Land and Brass
By: Nick Farramond
Runtime: 13 min 2 sec
Description:
Land and Brass documents an exhibition and body of work commissioned by Culture Coop, bringing together sound artist Sophie Cooper and Milnrow Brass Band. First presented at Rochdale Exchange in June 2025, the project merges experimental sound practices with the long-standing brass band traditions of Rochdale and the Pennines.
Developed with input from a community steering group, the work explores the meeting point between contemporary composition and local musical heritage. Inspired by damaged brass instruments at Rath’s Trombones in Huddersfield, Cooper reimagined these broken instruments as part of a bespoke sound system — allowing them a final, transformed voice.
The installation features Echoes and Reclamation, a composition for brass quintet that draws on the structures of traditional brass writing, reshaped through repetition, distortion, and field recordings tied to Milnrow’s landscape. The project also features artistic responses from members of Ebor Studio, supported by The Outlands Network.
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