New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On Friday 25th January 2019 Heresy Records will release Testament, an album of eleven compositions by Mel Mercier (b. 23. December, 1959), Composer/Percussionist/Professor and Chair of Performing Arts at the Irish World Academy of
Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Mel was first introduced to music by his father, Peadar Mercier, a member of the Chieftains, who taught him to play the Irish traditional percussion instruments, the bodhrán and bones. As one of the world's leading Irish percussionists He has performed and recorded with many of the leading artists in this genre including, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Donal Lunny, Pallé Mikkleborg,
Martin Hayes, Liam Ó Maonlaoi, Alan Stivell, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Caitríona O'Leary and Bill Whelan.
Mercier is a recipient of numerous awards including Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Soundscape for the Corcadorca production of Caryl Churchill's Far Away (2017); the Gradam Cheoil Award for Collaboration for Colin Dunne's solo dance show CONCERT (TG4, 2018); the New York Festival Bronze Medal Award for his radio documentary, Peadar Mercier (RTÉ Doc on One, 2017); the New York
Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination for his sound score for Colm Tóibín's
Testament of Mary (Broadway 2012) among others.
Throughout the 1980s he performed in
Europe and the USA with
John Cage and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (Roaratorio, Inlets, Duets).
Mel Mercier's current album release
Testament features works from the Broadway production of The
Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín, directed by Deborah Warner which starred Fiona Shaw, The PowerBook from the
National Theatre of Great Britain, also directed by Warner and starring Fiona Shaw, Wayne Jordan's production of Seán O'Casey's The Shadow Of A Gunman, from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin,
James Macdonald's production of Fewer Emergencies by
Martin Crimp for the Royal Court Theatre and others. The compositions have been drawn from original scores created by Mercier for nine Irish and international theatre productions and the collection features music that has been distilled, recomposed and remixed for CD.
Discussing the music on the album Mercier says, "The tracks on
Testament satisfy my long-held desire to find a way to document some of my theatre music. Recomposing and remixing from the pre-existing theatre soundscapes liberates the sounds from the original productions and gives them a second, new life, solely as a listening experience, as music alone."
Some of Mel Mercier's previous scores and soundscapes created for leading theatre practitioners include, director Deborah Warner, actor/director Fiona Shaw and director Phyllida
Lloyd (Mamma Mia/The Iron Lady). He works regularly with Cork theatre company, Corcadorca and Gare St Lazare Ireland, with whom he recently collaborated on Beckett's prose work, How It Is (Part 1). Other recent theatre compositions and sound designs include: Le
Testament de Marie (Ódeon, Paris); CONCERT a new dance show with Colin Dunne (CND Paris/Dublin Dance Festival); King Lear with Glenda Jackson(Old Vic, London); The Tempest (Salzburg Festival); The Shadow of a Gunman (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The
Testament of Mary (Broadway/Barbican, London); Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Epidaurus, Greece/Old Vic Tunnels, London/Next Wave Festival at BAM, New York/Bouffes du Nord, Paris).
Heresy will release
Testament internationally; the album will be available as a CD in record stores and other retail outlets around the world and online. The album will also be available digitally through a diversity of online shops and streaming services.
