NEST by Amanda Feery

"NEST is an expression of how I feel about home as refuge, of which everyone is deserving, but it's also an expression of my deep sadness about the seizure of home, occupation of land, and the violence of colonisation.

NEST is a Mass for the Tenant, not a Mass in the traditional sense, but I see the piece as a Mass for the tenants of the past and the present. NEST is also a critical response to the theme of home in Éamon de Valera's 1943 radio address, 'On Language and the Irish Nation'. With a libretto by Eimear Walshe, the line, "they come to make a ruin", repeats throughout the piece like a congregational response. A line that traverses periods and regions, it conjures different scenarios, from landlords to military forces to hired goons. The piece went in an unconscious musical direction of a Mass, channeling de Valera's sermon-like delivery of his 1943 broadcast, but I have realised I was getting at something else. Our relationships with where we live and where we call home, our 'nest', can embody a certain sacredness, even when those who have powers over where we live do not treat it as such. NEST carries a double meaning for this reason; it can be a place of total refuge and comfort, but it can also represent the seizure of property, of illegal occupation, and colonisation. The critical relationship with de Valera's antiquated, idealistic notion of the home is placed in stark contrast with the inherent violence of the privatisation of shelter and the disruption of the nest."

- Amanda Feery


Amanda Feery is a composer working with acoustic, electronic, and improvised music, with previous works for orchestra, opera, choir, film, chamber ensemble, and electronics. Her work has been featured at the Venice Art Biennale, Open Ear, New Music Dublin, Music Current, First Fortnight Festival, and Dublin Fringe Festival.

Amanda was the Mark Nelson Fellow in Music at Princeton University, completing her PhD in Music Composition in 2019. Her research focused on Kate Bush's song suite, The Ninth Wave, and Bush's output continues to have a significant influence on her work. Recent projects include: A Thing I Cannot Name, a 20-minute opera film commissioned by Irish National Opera with a libretto by Megan Nolan; My Year of Rest and Relaxation, commissioned by the Irish National Symphony Orchestra; and an opera soundtrack for Eimear Walshe's installation for the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, Romantic Ireland. Future projects include a new opera adaptation and a long-form work for uilleann pipe quartet. Previous releases include errāta, a self-release from 2020, and Spells from the Ice Age, released in 2014 on Fort Evil Fruit.

Experimental / avant / noise / etc. label.

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