our blood is an ocean

I get to work on this cool project with my pal Jack. I'm making an animated backdrop and he is being weird and awkward on stage. I think it's going to be really great!

we're planning a tour!

photo by Steve Brett

Over the weekend on 18th - 22nd of April, we're planning to play in London, Brighton, Birmingham, Cambridge/Northampton with: 

photo by Steve Brett

photo by Rhiannon Parkinson

photo by Roxy Brennan

olly watson: backlog vol. 1

The first instalment of Oliver Watson's extensive back catalogue is now available to listen to and download.

'Loosestrife', a new album by Olly will be released on Polite Records on the 29th of August.

a new lino project

Proofs from a couple of new panels. I'm having a go at a slightly longer story this time. I don't know when it will be done...

sent i november: press release

Polite Records are proud to present Sent I November by Tiger & Panda...

cat no.: pcd014 format: CDR/download
artwork: recycled brown card gatefold with lino-printed/hand tinted cover and A3 pastel green liner notes/poster/thing
price: £5 (CDR) £2 (download)

We wrote these songs at the end of 2012 and recorded them early 2013. Sent i November is the original Swedish title of Tove Jansson's Moomin Valley In November. In Swedish 'sent i November' means 'late in November' but in English it could also be a funny way of saying 'I sent November' like as if you are the seasons or like as the author she has subjected her characters to November to see what will happen to them.

We recorded the songs on thin cassette tape.

The music is about the fuzzy frostiness and out-of-tune blackness of late autumn when life hides beneath the surface until spring. The static on the radio at night blows also through the trees and tinny telephone voices speak orange-yellow comfort among acres of dark wilderness. Acoustic guitar plays sweet 'n' muffled 'n' keeps a rock-steady rhythm while electric guitar slips and slides like tectonic plates, accidentally jazzing the fretboard here and there. Further shadows are cast on the walls by the sizzling of a ride cymbal and the freight-train honking of a distant toot-box player.

Tiger & Panda are Olly Watson & Henry Ireland. The other singer on these songs wished to remain anonymous...

encyclopedia: a kind of press release

So it's finished. I'm pretty happy with it. It's more than a year's work.

I printed the inners at Hanway Print and silk-screen printed and bound the rest at home. The foil blocking on the cover was done at the Wyvern Bindery. I was looking into doing it myself but in the end the cost to set up would have been the same and I definitely wouldn't have done such a good job. I was also keen to give Wyvern Bindery some custom after all the friendly help I've had there in the past. They charge a setting fee of £25 for the first line of text and £5 for each additional line. Then it's about £5 per unit for every copy made after that. I think this is justifiable for an artist book.

Right now, I'm still figuring out how to present it. Doing readings is kind of limiting as this book kind of needs to be handled and leafed through to work as an artwork. My current plan is to hold some kind of event at Cafe Kino some time later this year.

I'm also thinking about offering a bespoke binding service for those who want their own personal copies. This makes more sense than mass producing and I don't want to charge for the content. Just the binding.

Speaking of which, I'm providing .PDF copies of this document free of charge to those who would like to read it (there will be some kind of 'this belongs to hrjireland' watermark on the pages) so if you'd like a copy, contact me somehow...

kino residency: event 1

I have organised my first event at Cafe Kino to take place between Sunday the 12th of February and Friday the 17th. The main event is a five day performance called encyclopedia. On the Sunday before this performance begins, I will be giving an explanation and lecture about language and communication, followed by performances by MXLX and Wig Smith:


MXLX is the most recent incarnation of Matt Loveridge. Matt’s experimental, often loop and noise-laden, compositions are eclectic and often highly ambitious. He plays guitar in Beak> and bass in Yoshy! Recently he released a three part piano drone piece under his own name on Stitch-Stitch Records. It was called ‘Atworth’, named after Atworth church in Wiltshire, where it was recorded. Each composition he creates contains an inventiveness, originality and thoughtfulness that gives them all a truly unique beauty, sometimes in stark contrast to the brutal sounds that go into their construction. Matt has will be playing an acoustic piece of work, making use of improvised chanting.


Wig Smith is the solo moniker of kora player Will Newsome. Will is perhaps best known as one half of The Hand. He plays a variety of folk instruments, his songs are collections of stories and often contain little known facts and pieces of folklore. His first solo album, entitled ‘A Means of Escape through a Hedge’ was released in April 2010. Will is playing at Kino again on Friday the 17th, supporting Vialka. This gig just happens to coincide with the completion of the encyclopaedia performance. Will is going to to link his two performances, giving a pleasing symmetry to the whole thing!

new year

As this photo indicates, I had hoped to make this post on the first but our internet has been broken so it's a little late. I had a long holiday and am looking forward to doing lots more projects, blogging and research this year as well as some shows perhaps. The last thing I did before I left was the Doodlebar Christmas Market, which I enjoyed and sold some stuff at. hopefully I will do a few more of those kinds of thing this year. In the meantime, I have set up an Etsy and a Folksy account to sell work from. I'll update when there are some items for sale.

Next pending project: the first Food-Chain Zine

Happy New Year

original poster

This is the original call for entries poster for elan. I'll see if I can find some more of those entries soon.

(ei'la:n) n a combination of style and vigour

"let youth cease to serve as a commodity merely to become a consumer of its own élan" Isadore Isou

élan is hopefully going to be a zine some time soon. For now, I've made a blog to post examples of work that I like the look of. I hope it's not too much of a waste of time, but we'll have to see...