With a few notable exceptions (Alice Coltrane historically and Brandee Younger today), the harp is not an instrument that’s commonly associated with jazz music.

Monaghan born Sorcha McCague initially studied classical and Irish harp at both the Royal Irish Academy and TU Dublin, and was recipient of numerous awards and scholarships from an early age.  

She received a scholarship from the International Jazz Harp Foundation to travel to Rio deJanairo in 2018, and there she developed and refined her performance within jazz and improvised music.

Last year she featured in an Improvised Music Company programme for emerging Irish jazz musicians, and undertook an artist in residence programme at Tinahely Courthouse Centre in Wicklow.

Sorcha McCague’s band include three great talents in contemporary Irish jazz, percussionist Hugh Denham, bassist Eoin O’Halloran and Yuzuha O Halloran on alto saxophonist and flute.

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Faster Shorter Louder is a Dublin-based trio featuring Matthias Winkler (guitar), Derek Whyte (double bass) and Hugh Denman (drums). The group takes familiar songs and reshapes them through improvisation, uncovering new rhythmic and harmonic possibilities while keeping the directness of the original material intact.

Drawing on Winkler’s expansive work with post-rock-influenced quartet ÄTSCH, Whyte’s long-standing role in ensembles such as ReDiviDeR and the Dirty Jazz Club, and Denman’s range from atmospheric soundscapes to free improvisation, the trio’s sound is both contemporary and rooted in the jazz tradition.

Like the classic trios of the 1950s and ’60s—or more recently The Bad Plus—Faster Shorter Louder approach popular music as raw material for exploration. The result is a set that feels accessible yet adventurous, appealing equally to jazz audiences and listeners from further afield.

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