ROAMER @ Billy Byrnes

May 2024 sees “breath-of-fresh-air Irish supergroup” Roamer play four shows around Ireland. The quartet will bring their original music – a celebration of improvisation and poetry – to audiences in Kilkenny (9th), Cork (10th), Sligo (11th) and Tinahely (12th).

The group brings together four of Ireland's most internationally active improvising musicians. Currently based in London, Vienna, Berlin and Dublin, they reunite regularly to compose and perform creative music.

Their first outing together was in July 2016 for a two-night sold-out run at Arthur's Blues & Jazz Club in Dublin. Spring 2017 saw the group develop and workshop a new programme in collaboration with London-based Irish poet Cherry Smyth, premiered at the Bray Jazz Festival and supported by Arts Council Ireland.

In 2020, they received an Arts Council Ireland Project Award to record their debut album Lost Bees, which was released on Diatribe Records in April 2022, awarded Irish Times Jazz Album of the Year and called “an extraordinary record in the true sense of the word, full of meaning and mystery, unafraid of risk, at times unsettling, a joyous challenge to musical orthodoxy” in a five-star review in the same publication.

Vocalist Lauren Kinsella (Snowpoet) was awarded the UK Arts Foundation Scholarship 2017; saxophonist Matthew Halpin (Last Chance Dance) was the first Irish musician to receive the presidential scholarship to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music; Simon Jermyn (Wood River) is one of the most in-demand creative music bassists on both sides of the Atlantic; and Matthew Jacobson (Anna Mieke), a Fulbright Scholar, is a highly celebrated drummer and collaborator on the European music scene.

Each roamer has represented Ireland extensively on stages around the world and this group provides a unique opportunity for audiences to see what happens when they bring all this experience together into one "creative music supergroup".



press:

“If you were to pick a group that represent the best of the current generation, these four would almost certainly feature... a breath-of-fresh-air Irish supergroup" (The Irish Times)

"The intense writing and rehearsals that resulted from this Arts Council-funded project have produced a collective work of art of undoubted beauty" (All About Jazz)

“A Roamer concert is a gift for anyone who wants to hear what happens when high level musicianship meets the spirits of generosity and friendship.” (The Irish Times)

“The four musicians are perfectly attuned to one another throughout. The recording is a modestly proportioned, beautifully atmospheric delight.” (Jazzwise)

audio:

bit.ly/LostBees_Bandcamp | sptfy.com/Roamer_LostBees

video:

bit.ly/Roamer_Cherry_Bray2017