Tom Fahy

Álbumes de Tom Fahy

'Tom Fahy' was an assemblage of musicians headed by multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and County Galway native Tom Fahy, born Quinn McCarthy (02 January 1971-19 June 2008.). Core members included Jiang Dan, Rachael Eisley, Zhang Li, Liu Kaige and Emer Mulholland, while other players were drafted for the requirements of particular pieces. Their 50+ album catalogue was the fruit of a 9-year collaboration initiated while the core members were in residence in Honolulu, Hawai'i. To each album, the members brought a myriad of musical competencies.

 

Jiang Dan (born Jiang Daoming), an only child, was born in Honolulu on 12 June 1971. A master stone-mason, Dan did not assume the role of chief percussionist with Tom Fahy until 1999. However, with his mother, a classically-trained pianist, Dan studied counterpoint, music theory and harmony throughout his childhood. The self-described avant-garde drummer utilizes custom-modified Pearl drum kits.

 

Rachael Eisley, (b. 17 July 1971), is the only child of Lionel William and Vera (nee Spence) Eisley. She was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, but spent her early years in Montreal, Quebec, where her father was a financier. When Eisley was four years old, her father died of a heart attack while driving in a car with his wife and daughter. After his death, her mother worked as a school teacher. In 1986, when her mother remarried, the family returned to their native St. John's.

 

As music was an early passion of Eisley's, Vera encouraged her daughter to experiment liberally with many instruments, and she soon developed proficiency with the guitar, keyboard, French horn and harp. Eisley cites Link Wray, Lonnie Mack and Duane Eddy as early influences on her development as a guitarist and it was chiefly as a guitarist that Eisley approached Fahy; later, emphasis was placed on her synthesizer work. Eisley was diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus in 2002 and was absent from the group until 2007, although she recorded her parts in-absentia. Today, Eisley lives on Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and is working on a memoir of her experiences with Tom Fahy.

 

Zhang Li, (b. 1 September 1976), a first-generation Chinese-American, is the daughter of inventor Sammo Li (the group's 2005 album, 'Inventor!' was inspired by the life and work of Mr. Li). Upon graduation from the University of Hawai'i in 1999, where she was studying archaeology, she began her collaboration with Fahy, writing parts for bass, electric xindi, oboe, flute, zither and upright bass. Like Dan and Eisley, Li is a self-trained musician.

 

Liu Kaige, (b. 8 April 1968), a San Francisco native, not only played the bass cello, violin and gehu, but also served as the group's chief technologist and sound engineer. Kaige, once a renowned North Shore pipeline surfer, was introduced to Fahy through his cousin, Jiang Dan. It was Kaige that developed the group's first sound-stage in Haleiwa on Waialua Bay. There, the group, in its infancy, began to flesh out the sounds that would inform their later works.

 

Tom Fahy, the group's leader and chief composer, was a largely self-taught musician. Fahy died on the evening of 19 June 2008; he is interred on the island of Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay.

 

The group recorded from their Conception Bay studio (Bookmakers Studio West, Portugal Cove), approximately 20 minutes north of St. John's, Newfoundland; ‘My Story’ was their last album.

 

Players

 

Tom Fahy: Piano, Trumpet, Saxophone [Alto, Baritone, Contrabass], Accordion, Software Development* And Lead Guitars

 

Liu Kaige: Bass Cello, Violin, Workstations And Gehu

 

Jiang Dan: Percussions And Theremin

 

Zhang Li: Bass, Electric Xindi, Oboe And Zither

 

Rachael Eisley: French Horn, Harp, Synthesizers And Rhythm/Lead Guitars

 

Emer Mulholland: Acoustic and Electric Guitars

 

Alvaro Macaya, 1991-1998: Percussions

 

Marco Falabella, 1991-1998: Bass

 

Vicente Labarca, 1991-1998: Rhythm Guitar

 

Eoghan Wyndham & Corbin Byrne: Production

 

The Mt. Pearl String Cabal is Donna Voight, Ed Chamberlain, Stephanie Malveaux, Tim Sweeney, Jim Rough, Larry Enterbridge, Josh Hammonds, Liz Channing, Scott Rye, Margaret Worth, Ian Adair, Jennifer Driscoll, Dag Halse, Kip Raymer, Liza Shuck, Tom Winchel, Ann Breese & Laurie Burr.

 

24 June 2009

 

Custodianship of the Tom Fahy Discography was transferred to the Wyndham-Byrne Estate(Active Conservator) on 20 June 2008. Upon transfer, many releases were withdrawn from circulation and remastered; still others were left unaltered but archived. While many releases will remain archived indefinitely, select works will be re-released, beginning 24 June 2009. These include an expanded selection of B-Sides, an Electric Best album and reissues of 'Gone South,' 'Saga,' 'Are You There, God?' and 'Inventor!' 'Blood And Bread,' a work on which Fahy collaborated with Zhang Li, will be released in its entirety. These issues will be released through the Stag Records Netlabel.

 

It has been the aim of the Wyndham-Byrne Estate to faithfully restore to the best of its abilities select Tom Fahy albums. This was an undertaking not without difficulties, due to Fahy's quixotic recording style and the broad range and general inconsistency of recording environments. No attempt has been made to remove artifactual sounds, with which Fahy did not concern himself, and which we believe were not entirely unintended. Attention was paid, however, to less subjective items, including but not restricted to gain-levels, clarity and dynamics. Where deemed necessary, select tracks were substituted with alternate recordings in an effort to best represent the original intentions of the group. This, then, describes the extent of the alterations made to the new issues.

 

Discography

 

 

 

5 Minutes to Midnight [1995]

A Little Corruption [2002]

Aperture [2005, Uncut]

Are You There, God? [2002]

A Room Full of Guys [2008, Salthill Edition]

A Short Affair [2004]

Adytum [1994]

Aestrid [2007]

B-Sides: 1991-2008 [2009]

Blood & Bread [2009]

Chimera [2003]

Claddagh [2008, Quinn McCarthy]

Conflict: Special Dissonance and its Unlikely Applications [2007]

Courtesan [1996]

Current: The Electric Best [2009]

Cygnus Express [1997]

Dexedrine Dreams [2001]

Executive Drivel [1998]

From the Swamps to the Stars [2001]

Futurity [2008]

Germ: Improvisations [2007]

Gone to George Street to Die [2005]

Hinterlands [2003]

ID [2005, Quinn McCarthy]

Intellection [2005]

Little Fatty: Studies in Atonality [2008]

Lovers [2005; 2008, Redacted]

Magpie Bridge [1999]

Middleby [2005]

Motel [2007, Tom Fahy with Jiang Dan]

Music for Astronauts [1998]

My Favorite Spring [1999]

My Story [2008]

Nashira [2007]

Nylon [2000]

Rambler: Chronicles of Woodlawn House [2005]

Rivers Trilogy: India on Sainte-Anne [2007]

Rivers Trilogy: Riviere des Prairies [2007]

Rivers Trilogy: La Grande Riviere [2007]

Saga [2007]

Salthill [2001, Tom Fahy with Emer Mulholland]

Shogun [1999, Quinn McCarthy]

Solomon Grundy [2000]

Strange Weeds [2001]

Summer People [2007]

Tattersail [2000, Quinn McCarthy]

The Fringes [1997]

The Midnight Version [2001]

The Nebraska Night [2002]

The Peony Pavilion [2005]

The Plunderers [2004]

The Rabbit King [2004]

 

 

 

Zhang Li

 

(F → F+F−F−F+F) [2009]

(A → B−A−B), (B → A+B+A) [2009]

PRNT [2009]

 

Notes

 

This constitutes an authorized discography for the assemblage of musicians known as Tom Fahy. This list describes a span of productivity commencing in 1991 and ending in 2008. It should be assumed that the group's core members contributed in-part to releases from the year 1999 through 2008. Releases that predate this span are attributed in whole to Tom Fahy with co-production assistance from Baer Schlesinger; additional players from 1991-1998 include Emer Mulholland, Alvaro Macaya, Marco Falabella and Vicente Labarca.

 

All releases, by the request of their author, Tom Fahy, are made available through a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, unless otherwise noted.