Latest release
Elegy for the Lost Detective
A quartet of elegiac pieces for strings.

I release music both under the name Jamie Michael McCarthy and under the name CERFILIC. Most recently I’ve been making longer pieces that function in a way that’s akin to weather systems, or cloud formations: you can play close attention to the moment-to-moment changes or you can zoom in and out and become aware that things have changed, but you didn’t really notice how or when they did. These pieces are released on the CERFILIC albums. I like to think of them as making a space where time and attention can be experienced differently to the ways it is in day-to-day life.
 
My other music is a lot more varied. I play violin, recorder and sing and use many other sound sources both traditionally musical and otherwise, including field recordings and often combine them with sound processing. They tend to be shorter than the CERFILIC tracks. I think it’s true to say that you can hear a distinct influence of early minimalism, ‘Holy’ minimalism, ambient and drone music in these tracks. Occasionally, I’ll produce a traditionally ‘instrumental’ acoustic piece, like L’Allée Défendue or my Violin and Viola Duet No: 2 but these days that’s quite rare.
 
As an improviser I use a mixture of acoustic instruments, household materials, percussion, voice and laptop. Here the influences of the traditional Irish music I grew up with can come out, along with the ‘Early’ Music I studied as a recorder player, as well as various non-Western European traditions that I enjoy listening to and have been influenced by (but can’t profess to have ever studied in any great depth).