Tongue and groove

Thomas Lyons

Robbie Perry takes an obvious delight in befuddling as he explains what his Culture Night 2019 project will be. On the face of it ‘Tongue’ is a short film that brings together musicians from above, below and beyond the border for an “experiment”.

An imagined voice over artist might intone: “Through forests, over bridges and across water, our musicians scramble to make a nautical adventure to an island gathering on Lough Oughter,” if a trailer for the film existed.
It’s the fourth PEACE IV Townhall Cavan Project to make its debut on Friday September 20. Directed by the aforementioned Mr Perry, with cinematography by Nuria Roldos, it is not a documentary, not an installation, but is sure to be engaging.
Responding to the blunt request for a description Robbie replies: “That’s a good question,” in the manner of a skilled politician. He’s not actually remarking on the quality of the question. The statement is a buffer. Not because he is unsure what ‘Tongue’ is about, but because putting a musical visual artistic creation into a simple sentence is not an easy thing.
Two years ago Robbie assumed the role of part-conductor, part-electronic puppet master when he created both music and musical instruments from electronic components, recycled technologies and abandoned or discarded objects for The Automated Orchestra for Cavan Townhall’s 2017 Culture Night offering.
He was also an important component of the visceral ‘Punk Opera’, a performance of raw energy, mechanical magic, ancient beliefs and the netherworld. This glimpse into the anarchic mind of Philip Doherty featured opera singer Niamh McCormack, punctuating the spoken word of Doherty to the accompaniment of Perry’s haunting score.
This outing is neither mechanical nor operatic, but cinematic: “It’s a short film,” he concedes. “We are working on it now, editing it up,” he says of the project’s whereabouts. His own personal whereabouts is Barcelona where he and Nuria are shaping the final film.
In it musicians from Fermanagh, Monaghan and Cavan congregate to play music: “We just met up at Clough Oughter castle. It’s the story of the trip and us playing there. We play on the island and on the two boats that brought us there.
“It’s the experiment of bringing people together. That’s not a crazy experiment, because people come together to play music everyday, but what’s interesting is getting people who had not played together before, just to see what would happen,” the creator clarifies.
Rather than being a documentary it’s an observation on what is happening in the area that the filming takes place. It’s an intersection between an event and creativity: “In a way it was partly practical. We did not have a date to do the musicians’ performance in the Townhall, so the idea was to create an event in our own time, film it and project it for Culture Night.”
He confesses to be “delighted” to do something he did not want to do and says time constraints were instrumental in the shape of what is finally emerging: “I’m hoping it will have a metaphorical depth. There is no audible narrative to what’s taking place. The viewer is going to have to make up their own mind about what they have seen. It alludes to soluble borders, and how borders can’t inhibit people who want to get together.”
As would be expected from the artist, music is at the heart of the piece: “The music is part of the narrative. It’s the reason for it, but I tend to not overthink things,” the gurgling laugh making its way from the capital of Catalonia does not mask that this is a fib.
Some of the local musicians who participated in the project include Dara Slacke, Jamie Byrne, Annie June Callaghan, Patrick McCabe, Eddie Hammel, Rita Perry, along with others influences from Dundalk, Castleblayney and the South of Spain.
When pushed on a clear description he says: “It’s hard to describe what it is, because we are in the process of creating it. I am sitting down with Nuria right now and we are extracting the footage we are using.”
However he is clear about its purpose: “It is a piece of art. People should be able to draw some really interesting meaning from it.”
If you want to draw some meaning from ‘Tongue’ then the screening of this visual art piece will be somewhere in The Townhall, Townhall Street, Cavan Town on Culture Night, Friday, September 20, between 8-10.30pm.