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2CD
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SIDO 020-21CD
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The Early Years collection has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the music-theater company, Operating Theatre, by composer Roger Doyle and performer Olwen Fouere. Operating Theatre has been active in two phases: the first from 1981 to 1988, and the second from 1998 to 2008. This double-CD set celebrates the first phase, during which the company operated as both a theatre company, integrating music as an equal partner in the theatrical environment, and as a band releasing records.
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LP
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ACOTLPX1
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Dublin's All City Records continue their deep dive into early Irish electronica, jazz, rock, and experimental music with the latest release on the AllChival imprint. A lost gem from 1983, Miss Mauger is the debut LP of Operating Theatre, a little-known proto synth-pop act and experimental theater group led by avant-garde composer Roger Doyle. Featuring the vocals of future Hollywood actress Olwen Fouéré alongside pulsing synths, brass, a vocoder, and the electro acoustic production talents of Doyle himself, it's the first time a Fairlight sampler was used in an Irish studio setting and gives a prescient but alternative take on the new wave sound that came to dominate the charts soon after. Not quite pop nor full-blown electronica, Miss Mauger is a rare creature in the pantheon of Irish experimental music, largely ignored and misunderstood when it was first released, it's now getting the full reissue treatment it deserves -- with two extra tracks thrown in for good measure: "Austrian", which was originally release as an A-side by CBS records in 1981 and "Sir Geoffrey", another recording from that era by the short-lived group. Operating Theatre's short existence as a recording group fizzled out after the act were signed to U2's embryonic Mother label. Only one more vinyl release followed and the group went their separate ways apart from sporadic collaborations. Doyle, the musical maverick at the heart of the act, continues to produce to this day and has released 30 albums. Fouéré, who provided the vocals and a theatric element to the group (an almost essential part of any early '80s synth act) went on to a successful movie career that has recently seen her appear in major box office productions like Mandy (2018) and Fantastic Beasts (2018). This album is a heady snapshot of some early pop explorations by one of the great modern composers and a rare insight into an underground new wave sound that was bubbling up through the Irish capital during the late '70s and early '80s. Cut from the same DIY or almost post punk cloth as our recent reissues of Stano and Michael O'Shea, this is another example of a maverick artist producing largely instrumental work far removed from the mainstream pop industry or what little of it existed in the country at the time. Includes extended liner notes.
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2CD
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INC 006CD
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Operating Theatre is an Irish music theater company founded by composer Roger Doyle and performer Olwen Fouéré. This collection was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their founding, originally by the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival label in 2006. Featuring Bono of U2. Operating Theatre has been active in two phases: the first from 1981 to 1988, and the second from 1998 to the present. This double CD celebrates the first phase, during which the company operated as both a theater company, integrating music as an equal partner in the theatrical environment, and as a band releasing records. Roles were flexible within the company in that Fouéré also sang and Doyle also acted. In phase two there has been no band, and the texts (if any) have been "found," devised and/or drawn together from various strands, instead of being commissioned from writers as in phase one. Performances have taken place in both conventional and non-theatrical environments (e.g. an abandoned warehouse, a glass room in a hotel), and music has become more integrated. The first appearance by Operating Theatre (the band) was in the summer of 1981 with the release on CBS Records (Ireland) of the single "Austrian," with "Positive Disintegration" on the B-side. A second single "Blue Light And Alpha Waves" followed a year later, with "Rampwalk" as the B-side. "Fingerdance Waltz/Hymn" contains two developed extracts from the music for "Ignotum Per Ignotius," a 50-minute piece of music-theater performed by Doyle and Fouéré, written and directed by visual artist James Coleman, which Operating Theatre went on a tour of Holland with in 1982. "No Come," "Syllable," "Dragon Path," "The Confectioners" and "Miss Mauger" were included on the LP Miss Mauger by Operating Theatre released in 1983 on the Kabuki label in London. 'Sir Geoffrey," "Satanasa" and "Clubmusic/Amene-Moi" are from the Operating Theatre production of The Diamond Body written by Aidan Mathews, a 75-minute solo performance by Fouéré, which opened at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin in 1984 and toured in London, Glasgow, New Jersey, Avignon and Caracas up until 1988. Also in 1984, the company mounted a production of the Lorca play The Love Of Don Perlimplin And Belisa In The Garden, turning it into an "electronic chamber opera of sorts." This time, Fouéré directed and Doyle and Elena Lopez played the title roles. A 56-minute suite of Doyle's music from this production, developed as a music-only experience, was released in 2000 as part of a double CD called Fairlight Memories. Three tracks are included here. In October 1983 Olwen and Roger were asked to perform new material for an Irish TV arts show and to demonstrate the latest in music technology -- the Fairlight Computer Music Instrument. "Part Of My Make-up" is the song they wrote for that occasion. "The Tractor" comes from 1984, from days of intense Operating Theatre activity, but was never used for anything in the end. It gets its first outing here. "Queen Of No Heart" and "Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In The Mouth" were the result of an initial collaboration between singer/lyricist Elena Lopez and Roger Doyle and were released by Mother Records, the label set up by U2, as a single by Operating Theatre in 1986, with Lopez on main vocals and drummer Sean Devitt joining the band for this recording. Fouéré was asked to play the title role in the Gate Theatre's production of Oscar Wilde's Salome, directed by Steven Berkoff in 1988, and Doyle was asked to compose the music -- a two hour on-stage live piano score. "Before She Was Asked To Dance" is an early version of what was to become "Salome's Dance." The first phase of the company's activity had come to an end. "Johnny's Body At 002" is a work made in preparation for the first Operating Theatre production in phase two, Angel/Babel (1999).
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