Niamh de Barra works primarily with cello, voice, electronics and sampling software, layering different textures in a live setting, to build a song from scratch. Her music draws on traditions old and new - a contemporary Irish cultural narrative, electronic, but with a human face and a transparent process.
She's played in a range of venues in Ireland and the Netherlands, from sitting-rooms to avant-garde jazz clubs to a tent in a field on the edge of a cliff, and her music has celebrated Bloomsday in Bray, and been broadcast on TG4's 'Ceol ar an Imeall' and Dan Hegarty's Studio 8 Sessions on 2FM.
She’s released two EPs, ‘Cusp’ (2010) and ‘Below The Sea’ (2012), and a full-length album, 'Echo' (2012), which is due to be released on vinyl on Alphabet Set in late 2012.
Press for 'Cusp':
'The Dublin-based scurvy lass delivers four exquisite, imaginative, daring, magical songs to stop you in your tracks.'
- Jim Carroll, On the Record, Irish Times.
'Remarkable looped beats, vocals and cello through an experimental dubby filter.'
- Una Mullally, Sunday Tribune.
'[D]ark sea shanties and atmospheric, multilayered approach to vocals. A rather unique debut release' - Aoife Barry, http://sweetoblivionloves.com/2011/01/03/forwardsbackwards/