Sudden Wells is a musical project led by composer and songwriter Michael Gallen.

This new group stands at a crossroads between Gallen’s output as singer and songwriter with Dublin band Ana Gog and his work as a celebrated and widely-performed composer, whose recent compositions include opera Elsewhere which premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 2021 and Bád ón Alltar, a new orchestra commission for the Orchestre National de Bretagne, Ulster Orchestra and National Concert Hall.

Sudden Wells combines both worlds, weaving widescreen, cinematic contemporary soundscapes around Gallen’s evocative songwriting, all performed in the live setting by some of Ireland and Europe's finest contemporary musicians including Caimin Gilmore (Crash Ensemble/Ye Vagabonds), Matt Jacabson (ReDiViDeR, Anna-Mieke), Patrick O’Laoghaire (I Have a Tribe) and Romain Bly (Stargaze).

The result is a spellbindingly rich atmospheric sound which merges Gallen’s hypnotic piano playing and evocative vocals with euphoric electronic and instrumental textures - melding a trademark intimate, lyrical quality with expansive, pulsating musical I arrangements and drawing comparisons to artists such as Nils Frahm, Moderat, and Thom Yorke.

A debut Sudden Wells LP was recorded at Killyon Manor last year, produced by Simon Cullen (Ships) with a release and touring planned for Autumn 2024.

Róis

Róis (Rose Connolly) is a composer, performer and multi-instrumentalist, from County Fermanagh. Her body of work includes ensemble, large-scale and small-scale works, solo pieces, electronic solo/ensemble pieces and short film/multimedia works also. Her unique sound is an idiosyncratic combination of modernist and contemporary music with inflections of Irish traditional music, folk and Jazz.

Presented by NCH and HOMEBEAT