Translations

Mary D, the director of the play, was a professional acquaintance of Ken's. She was involved with the Cork Arts Theatre, an amateur drama production, with their own theatre in Knapp's Square. Ken knew that Mary was a good person to work with, so he asked her if she'd like to use original music for her production of Translations. She said she would, if she could hear a demo. So in one brainstorming session, after reviewing the script, we came up with four new pieces.

These are original pieces composed by Ken Hayes and Tomás Mulcahy for the production.

Translations 1 - broadband/modem
Translations 2 - broadband/modem
Translations 3 - broadband/modem

Translations 1 was used for the pivotal point between the two acts. With the house lights down for 10 minutes, it was the most popular of all the pieces, creating the right atmosphere.

Translations 2 uses a percussion loop of layered bodhrans from Mike Oldfield's Amarok. This piece was used as a loop while the audience took their seats.

Tomás: "Working on Translations with Mary D directing was a wonderful opportunity for us. It was an amateur production and we had a great time. Ken and myself did the sound for the entire run, but that was really just an excuse to see an exceptional play! I think there were six shows altogether. Not long afterwards, Orbital played in Cork for the Féile festival. As always, they blew everyone else away, and I experienced a minor epiphany... The next major project for us was The Charms, which meant that we had no time for theatre work, and any aspirations in this area fell by the wayside."

Click here for more info on the play.

We would love to compose new music for theatre again, so if you're interested, email us !