We Only Want The Earth: how Irish composers are responding to the climate challenge
We Only Want The Earth is a new two-part documentary for the Lyric Feature on RTÉ lyric FM, exploring how Irish composers are responding to the climate and biodiversity crisis through their work.
Presented by Jonathan Grimes of the Contemporary Music Centre, We Only Want The Earth reflects on the role of composers in the climate emergency and asks if music can help us face the crisis?
Journeying across Ireland by bike, Jonathan meets with composers Sebastian Adams, Natalia Beylis, Éna Brennan, Robert Coleman, Gráinne Mulvey, Karen Power, Judith Ring, Nick Roth, Jennifer Walshe and Ian Wilson to find out how they are engaging with the climate challenge. Sharing perspectives from the practical to the artistic and existential, we hear how these composers are sounding the transformation of our world.
I've been listening in the most remote places on our planet and… been forever changed by them, and part of that change is in hearing the effects of humans and of industry - you can't unhear them. It changes everything.
- Karen Power
Recorded at locations from the Belfast hills to the Blackwater Valley, with additional contributions from climate scientist Hannah Daly and musicologist Stephen Graham.
We Only Want The Earth airs on Sunday 17 March and Sunday 24 March on The Lyric Feature, RTÉ lyric FM.
Listen back at www.rte.ie/radio/lyricfm/the-lyric-feature/
We Only Want The Earth is a Contemporary Music Centre production for RTÉ lyric FM co-funded by Coimisiún na Meán, Sound & Vision Scheme and RTÉ Independent Radio Productions. Produced by Helen Shaw, Athena Media and Jonathan Grimes. RTÉ lyric FM Series Producer: Eoin O Kelly. Production Coordinator: Lily Collins. Additional recording and editing: Keith Fennell.
Image credits for photographs (all other photos by CMC): Sebastian Adams by Miriam Kaczor; Natalia Beylis by Aisling McGinn; Gráinne Mulvey by Eugene Langan; Karen Power by Frida Sjögren; Judith Ring by Sebastian Molines; Nick Roth by Tony Carragher; Jennifer Walshe by Blackie Bouffant; Ian Wilson by Darko Srećković.