ALTERNATING CURRENT 2023

Alternating Current, Dublin Digital Radio’s celebration of the experimental currents in contemporary Irish music returns to The Complex this October.

During the station’s seven years of broadcasting, it has come to occupy a unique position in Ireland’s music hinterland. As a radio platform that thrives on giving space to experimenters, artists and producers, the station has become a home to some of the most compelling work being made both in Ireland and by its émigré axis.

This October the festival announces its most ambitious programme yet, a 3 day music festival taking place in The Complex’s Depot, Smithfield, on October 27 and 28, and online on October 29. This year’s festival is organised around the theme of “meitheal” an Irish language word denoting a historical practice of community labour in the production of the common goods. For AC23 we want to explore sonic commons - ways in which the production of and experience of sounds is always a collaborative process - connecting us into a network of historical and contemporary movements, technologies and people.

We want to consider how we create work together in times of precarity, how we organise ourselves to create cultural spaces and how when we make and listen to music together we are always living-in-common with others. Through this theme, the festival will open up links with new organisations (nationally and internationally) and spark collaborations and new forms of community, while continuing with our vision of making Alternating Current a celebration of sonic cultures, radio art and contemporary Irish music.

This year the festival has specially commissioned artists at the cutting edge of sonic practice to make work for the festival and in response to the theme. Áine O’Dwyer, ALYXIS, BB84, Caskré, Lakker, Linda O'Keefe, Muireann Levis, Nigel Rolfe, Soria, and Whirling Hall of Knives will perform their new work in the old fruit and vegetable warehouse off Capel Street over two days. While on October 29, new specifically commissioned radio works from Radio Alhara, Radio Cashmere, Radio Kapital, Spooky Beore and The Office of Joint Administrative Intelligence will be broadcast live on Dublin Digital Radio and collaborating stations.

Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA) will explore communal art making with a series of workshops and screenings. Starting with an all-ages music making workshop hosted by Dabbledoo Music, the programme will include a electronic music workshop for girls with SynthesizeHer, P2P - a work in progress music sharing event hosted by Roo Honeychild and a film screening event in partnership with the Small File Media Festival.

Friday tickets are priced at just €10 for Patrons, €15 for non-Patrons. Saturday tickets are €12.50 for Patron, €20 for non-Patrons. Weekend tickets are €20 for Patrons, €30 for non-Patrons. You can sign up to Dublin Digital Radio’s Patreon here.

This is the alternating current, the one that seeks to give voice to the other island, the sounds less heard, the other traditions. The sounds of the hinterlands and its fringes coalescing.

Line Up

Áine O’Dwyer

ALYXIS

BB84

Caskré

D.A.T.A (Dublin Art and Technology Association)

Lakker

Linda O'Keefe

Muireann Levis

Nigel Rolfe

Radio Alhara

Radio Cashmere

Radio Kapital

Soria

Spooky Beore

The Office of Joint Administrative Intelligence

Whirling Hall of Knives