Culture File

Orit Gat wanders the many venues of this year's Venice Biennale of contemporary, catching boycotts, footballing triumphs and work from Irish artists Isabelle Nolan, Rachel Fallon and Alice Maher.

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The Comfort Zone: Playwright and performer, Dagogo Hart introduces a classic of Nigerian hip-hop into the Zone, in the shape of M.I Abaga's 2016 "Illegal Music 3" mixtape

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Marking your cards for some time well spent, Colm Tóibín suggests getting down to zero with Shostakovich's last string quartet; Canadian poet, Karen Solie points out Nathalie Léger's 2012 book, Suite For Barbara Loden, to be enjoyed along with Loden's 1970 classic, Wanda; and Luke Clancy is learning to assemble a soundsystem in the Moroccan outback with the help of director Óliver Laxe's 2025 film, Sirā

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In Dublin, an armoury of sonic devices are improvised and repurposed by Abbas Zahedi, including a commercial sonic weapon called an LRAD, which the artist has converted to broadcast poetry; then some we're-just-going-to-go-ahead-and-call-them post-appalachian sounds from the fiddle and the banjo with Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman; and for dessert, an island postcard from Inishturk by composer and writer, Patrick O'Laoghaire.

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The Comfort Zone: artist and performer, Rónán Ó Raghallaigh asks Colm and Luke to focus on the work of French-American band, Gorjira's album, Fortitude, in a conversation that touches on metal's relationship with trance and pre-Christian Irish traditions of imbas forosnai, as well as the politics of noise, wind turbines, Prof. Ivor Brown, and Californian gay biker culture.

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The Shortwave Orchestra is a collection of experimental musicians who came together to play for the first time in Dublin in April. Following their world premier performance, Culture File convened a panel featuring Orchestra members, Aileen Wallace, Bryan O’Connell, Dennis McNulty and Orchestra instigator, Touch's Mike Harding, to talk about the modular synth scene, endangered communities and surviving in the avant garde. (photo: Fergus Kelly)

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The Comfort Zone's Colm Tóibín suggests reading a new literary biography by Nicholas Boggs, Baldwin: Alove Story; artist Harold Offed thinks a trip to your local Brazilian foods store would be a solid idea; and Luke Clancy recommends Emily leBarge's art 'n' trauma memoir, Dog Days.

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The Comfort Zone: TS Eliot Prize-winning Canadian poet, Karen Solie suggests our present moment might be an apt time for Colm Tóibín, Luke Clancy and everyone else to read Jim Thompson's nasty and hilarious Southern novel of crime, corruption and excrement, "Pop 1280".

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Y'know, Cecil Taylor is way easier to enjoy if you slow it right down, and other insights from composer, musician, and .25 speed YouTube clip enthusiast, claire rousay. 

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