Sebastian Adams

I’m a composer, viola player and artistic director from Dublin, Ireland. I also run Kirkos and do contract work as a computer music designer. Download and use anything you want from this site. Feel free to get in touch with questions!

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Singing Hollow

 (2025)  [240]

A performance installation for church bells (method ringers), organ, and walking instruments. Designed around St Audoen's Church, Dublin but adaptable to new spaces. Two computers required.

Cover image for Singing Hollow

The linked website includes documentation, a web-based score and much more detailed information about the piece.

The Singing Hollow sculpture in St Audoen's Park invites visitors to put their heads into a hole inside a rock. It creates an acoustic transformation reminiscent of the feeling of sanctuary from the outside world that comes when you walk into a church. This inspired this live sound installation: organ plays inside the church, musicians play in the grounds, and church bells bridge both worlds, all playing parts that are both independent and interdependent.

In the original performance, the piece is designed for four outdoor instruments, six church bells (each one rung by an individual) and an organ. It was specifically written for St Audoen’s Church of Ireland, which is an incredibly old church.

Commissioned by: The Office of Public Works and The Liberties Festival


Traffic Piece

 (2025)  [840]

durational installation (14 hours) for multiple groups of instruments, video, audio and live traffic; devoted to Unit 44!

Cover image for Traffic Piece

Presented here in a web installation version that locks the viewer to the specific moment from the performance corresponding to the current time of day.

Traffic Piece was created as a goodbye to Unit 44, a venue Kirkos ran which was heavily impacted by traffic sound. It ran from rush hour in the morning to rush hour at night. I got the idea for this piece during a beautiful saxophone performance by Josten Myburgh where his barely audible multiphonics fought for attention with the traffic outside in a way that really captivated me. After four years watching the traffic pass Unit 44, I thought sitting down and really listening to it would be the perfect way to say goodbye to the venue.

A bunch of the performers who contributed a lot to Unit 44 played a 14-hour long score (working in shifts) made from a full week of security cam footage of the street outside Unit 44, while they and the audience also watched the traffic in real life.

These different time cycles (moment to moment, rush hour to rush hour, Monday to Sunday) will mingle with pitch material derived from the resonances of Unit 44 itself to influence a ritualistic performance which is fully about the specific place that Unit 44 is and has been, and about the way the outside world has spilled into it.

The piece finished with a guided improvisation using the traffic as a score, open to all.

06:30 - 08:10 Shift 1: Sebastian Adams and Tom Roseingrave
08:10 - 8:30: traffic only
08:30 - 10:10: Shift 2: David Bremner and Sharon Phelan
10:10 - 10:30: traffic only
10:30 - 12:30: Shift 3: Aonghus McEvoy, Susan Geaney, David Lacey, Nick Roth
12:10 - 12:30: traffic only
12:30 - 14:10: Beethoven Freeze: Sebastian Adams and Robert Coleman
14.10 - 14.30: traffic only
14:30 - 16:10: Shift 5: Kevin Free and Jane Hackett
16:10 - 16:30: traffic only
16:30 - 18:00: in nomine: Sebastian Adams, Hannah Miller, Caitríona O'Mahony
18:00 - 18:30: traffic only
18:30 until the traffic ceases: Shift 7: open improv jam (all welcome)

Joan Somers Donnelly made a parallel performance taking notes on the passing traffic almost all day


Stolen Music

 (2022)  [10]

fixed-media multi-channel video, diffused stereo sound, printed text materials, audience members with kazoos, interactive website and live narration

Stolen Music was originally conceived for my final project as part of the IRCAM Cursus, but it is also an ongoing musical world-building project composed of websites, audio collages, acts of piracy etc.

The basic aim of the project is to explore two main ideas that matter to me:

Examining the boundaries of a "piece" of music: questioning the idea of the sole author and finding ways to subvert the linear, sectional timeline of a typical musical performance
Presenting an argument that all musical material should be fair game for all people to work with, regardless of who owns it under current copyright law.

This project owes a huge debt to Claudia Jane Scroccaro, the other teachers at IRCAM, and my colleagues from my course who let me mess with their music. Much more info is available on the dedicated website.


Tide Quartet

 (2020)  [90]

string quartet; violin, violin, viola, cello

Cover image for Tide Quartet

A string quartet dress in wet suits, sitting on chairs on the dry sea-bed in Dublin Bay. They perform a theme and variations (improvised from a set of instructions) as the tide begins to rush in around them. The performance ends for each musician only when the water reaches their neck, making it a durational piece reliant on the speed of the tide. Afterwards, the saturated instruments will be retrieved and the composer will attempt to save them by leaving them to dry naturally. This process will also be recorded and shown on this website. Unsalvageable parts will be repaired using driftwood, and the piece will be performed again next year.


Fluxkit Transcriptions

 (2024)

open instrumentation, including typist (premiere: flute, horn, keyboard, cello, typist)

A typist transcribes texts contained in a Fluxkit into musical notation, which is displayed to performers (and audience). The music notation, along with the typed text, is then used as a framework for improvising by a group of performers. 



To play this piece, you also need to get or make a Fluxkit. A Fluxkit is a collection of event scores stored in a container (e.g. Water Yam by George Brecht). I made the piece with the Fluxkits Kirkos created in 2016 in mind, and used one of these to play the premiere. If you don’t have access to a Fluxkit, you could make one, for example by cutting up parts of the Fluxus Workbook (freely available online e.g. on the Monoskop website) and placing them in a box.

The first performance of this piece was played by Lina Andonovska, Hannah Miller, Adam Collins and Yseult Cooper Stockdale (as Kirkos) on 25.06.24 as part of an Irish Composers’ Collective concert in Unit 44, Dublin. I was the typist for the performance.

The software used for this performance (ChatMusic) is currently only available by request. Please get in touch if you're interested.


Quartet for viola and three radios

live viola, three radios, three transmitters, multi-channel playback and a microphone

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
*a piece for live viola, three radios, three transmitters, multi-channel playback and a microphone* Three radios are set up at the very beginning of the piece but playing only silence. Each is tuned to a different radio station. The radios are set up in a line with a space between them, with the viola player standing in the fourth position in the line. The three radio stations correspond to the frequencies of three low-powered radio transmitters placed in the venue. Each is connected to a channel of the multi-channel playback device. A microphone is unobtrusively placed in the space and begins recording when the viola player starts playing. After a certain amount of time, the first radio starts playing back the recording. After two more periods of time, the remaining radios also join in, so a canon accumulates. A potential ending for the piece could be for an accomplice to turn off the radio transmitters one by one over a period of a couple of minutes, which should cause the radios to return either to a commercial radio station or to white noise. The material played by the viola player before the first radio begins should be quiet, sparse and lo-fi. Pitched material should be used and fragmentary phrases should be encouraged. Care should be taken during preparation to match the balance of the live performance, microphones and playback so that the sound coming out of each radio is perceived as being around the same volume as the performer. The gaps in duration between each entry could be in descending Fibonacci relations (or some other similar relationship). E.g. first radio enters after 5 minutes, second after 3 more, third after 2 more, after which this sequence could break down and the quartet could perform until an appropriate culmination is reached. #viola #composer-performer #improvisation #textpiece #radio #canon #idea #active

Three radios are set up at the very beginning of the piece but playing only silence. Each is tuned to a different radio station. The radios are set up in a line with a space between them, with the viola player standing in the fourth position in the line.

The three radio stations correspond to the frequencies of three low-powered radio transmitters placed in the venue. Each is connected to a channel of the multi-channel playback device.

A microphone is unobtrusively placed in the space and begins recording when the viola player starts playing.

After a certain amount of time, the first radio starts playing back the recording.

After two more periods of time, the remaining radios also join in, so a canon accumulates.

So far, I've only performed this once and the performance officially "failed" - because I forgot to sit beside the microphone, meaning it only picked up a very, very quiet signal. Once I realised, I was forced to play very quietly to compete with it (which then made the later parts of the canon even more quiet), The YouTube clip here is from that performance - it was somehow a nice effect even though my idea didn't work at all

I think the piece has legs though!


Quartet for viola and three radios

live viola, three radios, three transmitters, multi-channel playback and a microphone

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
*a piece for live viola, three radios, three transmitters, multi-channel playback and a microphone* Three radios are set up at the very beginning of the piece but playing only silence. Each is tuned to a different radio station. The radios are set up in a line with a space between them, with the viola player standing in the fourth position in the line. The three radio stations correspond to the frequencies of three low-powered radio transmitters placed in the venue. Each is connected to a channel of the multi-channel playback device. A microphone is unobtrusively placed in the space and begins recording when the viola player starts playing. After a certain amount of time, the first radio starts playing back the recording. After two more periods of time, the remaining radios also join in, so a canon accumulates. A potential ending for the piece could be for an accomplice to turn off the radio transmitters one by one over a period of a couple of minutes, which should cause the radios to return either to a commercial radio station or to white noise. The material played by the viola player before the first radio begins should be quiet, sparse and lo-fi. Pitched material should be used and fragmentary phrases should be encouraged. Care should be taken during preparation to match the balance of the live performance, microphones and playback so that the sound coming out of each radio is perceived as being around the same volume as the performer. The gaps in duration between each entry could be in descending Fibonacci relations (or some other similar relationship). E.g. first radio enters after 5 minutes, second after 3 more, third after 2 more, after which this sequence could break down and the quartet could perform until an appropriate culmination is reached.

Three radios are set up at the very beginning of the piece but playing only silence. Each is tuned to a different radio station. The radios are set up in a line with a space between them, with the viola player standing in the fourth position in the line.

The three radio stations correspond to the frequencies of three low-powered radio transmitters placed in the venue. Each is connected to a channel of the multi-channel playback device.

A microphone is unobtrusively placed in the space and begins recording when the viola player starts playing.

After a certain amount of time, the first radio starts playing back the recording.

After two more periods of time, the remaining radios also join in, so a canon accumulates.

So far, I've only performed this once and the performance officially "failed" - because I forgot to sit beside the microphone, meaning it only picked up a very, very quiet signal. Once I realised, I was forced to play very quietly to compete with it (which then made the later parts of the canon even more quiet), The YouTube clip here is from that performance - it was somehow a nice effect even though my idea didn't work at all

I think the piece has legs though!


500 Minutes of Music for Microtonal Piano

 (2022)  [500]

piano or MIDI piano

espresso - micro sonata

 (2021)  [2]

for performance by anybody (earphones and espresso required)

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
The text score and required audio files are accessible on the linked page. (Click the button below)

Viola Transcription of 'Failing: a Very Difficult Piece for Solo String Bass' by Tom Johnson

 (2021)  [10]
[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
This piece has never been realised. The idea is that the viola player performs "Failing" by Tom Johnson, but because the viola is so much easier than the double bass, something has to be done to make it more difficult. My plan is for the performer to do this piece dressed only in underwear, surrounded by a team of assistants who have carefully learned the score and will whip the performer every time they perceive that a mistake has been made.

How to Build a VIOLIN in TWENTY MINUTES Tutorial

 (2021)  [20]

open instrumentation, designed for audience performance

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
the video is an instruction score

Breath play [WIP]

 (2020)

viola

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
I haven't made a score for this but basically it's a title piece (an event score in the spirit of Yoko Ono) where any interpretation of the title could lead to a valid performance. So far, I've only done it by playing existing music (Bach or Stravinksy) with a balloon in my mouth, tucked under the strings so that my breath distorts the sound.

Portrait Piece

 (2019)

event score

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
Portrait Piece (22/8/2019 - for Cara) Take a blank sheet of manuscript paper. Divide the page into a 9 x 3 grid, using the full length and width of the page. Set a timer (an analogue egg timer would be ideal, if available) for four minutes, and in the time available, draw (in the first section of the grid) a pencil portrait of the first person who enters your head. Stop when the timer finishes. Do not stop early. Move on to the next section of the grid, and repeat the process, drawing the next person who enters your head. Continue until 27 portraits have been drawn, filling the entire page. Work without breaks, ensuring that the process takes exactly 108 minutes. After the page is full, take a rubber and erase everything that falls within the white space between the printed staves. You can imagine ledger lines if you wish. Come up with a system to translate the salient features of what remains into musical notation, then perform the piece. [N.B. The preparation does not necessarily have to take place during the performance] Fluxversion 1 (23/8/2019): Write out Portrait Piece in pencil, then remove all the text with a rubber, leaving just the title. Write a dash on the blank page, then perform.

Masturbate Piece

 (2019)

event score

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
Masturbate Piece (4/7/2019) - Fluxversion 1: 1. In a private place, masturbate in whatever way is most comfortable/familiar to you. 2. Figure out a way to record/remember and transcribe this 3. In a public place, perform the transcription (in whatever way is most comfortable) (4/7/2019)

Omegle Piece

 (2019)

event score

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
Omegle Piece (2019) - Fv 1 (2019): Perform Nivea Creme Piece, then Vaseline Symphonique, then Mayonnaise Piece on Omegle

Tense Systems (v. 1)

 (2019)  [26]

performer, video, DIY-violin

Weight Piece

 (2018)

event score

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
Weight Piece (2018) - Fv 1: Play your instrument and then get tied up by your colleagues. The piece ends when you can no longer play, or when you have been placed in a final position. (It's better not to play anything with personality, so the obstructions can be heard more easily) Fv 2: The original plan for this piece was to play viola with weights attached to arms, bow, etc. I still like the idea of trying this.

Arrest Piece

 (2016)

event score

[VIEW TEXT SCORE]
Arrest piece (2016) Evade capture Arrest piece Fluxversion 1 Discuss pornography at medium volume near a children's playground. When police arrive, escape by digging a hole to Australia (both versions on one card)

CrowdScoreSing

 (2013)  [8]

violin, cello, flute, horn, trumpet, percussion (glockenspiel, cow, piano, three actors

Tweet Piece (#2)

 (2012)  [8]

guitar, fixed media electronics

Tweet Piece (#1)

 (2012)

4 - 8 performers