Douglas Stuff

  "Gary Numan, was one of my very first influences. His minimal synth melodies, electronic arpeggiated chord sequences and understated vocals, juxtaposed with his innovative ambient industrial soundscapes nurtured and cultivated my primordial electronic musical conception." Mark O'Leary

 In my Synth pop band Voltaire, when we started, we actually played a few Human League riffs, right at the very beginning, so we started with those songs as we all knew them and then we started extemporizing and it sounded like Cabaret Voltaire, who were receiving a lot of airplay at the time on MTV, so during our tea break I mentioned to the lads, we should call the band Voltaire, because what we just played, sounded like them, they agreed and that is how we started.

  Mark O'Leary played in concert with Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart, both performed on the Miles Davis Album Big Fun. During the performances with Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart with Tomasz Stanko the music played exemplified the aesthetic of Big Fun. Modal vamps, polyrhythms, wah wah guitar, grooves, fragmented trumpet, tabla like drum patterns, all had their primordial origins in the Miles Davis album Big Fun. Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart both played drums on Big Fun. 

 

 Mark O'Leary before U2, Before Fontaine's DC  and Rory Gallagher never played Ukraine Mark O'Leary Played on guitar with one of the most iconic jazz musicians in the former USSR and founder member of the Ganelin trio; Vladimir Tarasov on Drums and Percussion Saxophist  Anatoly Vapirov and the most in demand pianist in the former USSR Yuri Kuznetsov. Performing in the Philharmonic Hall in Odessa Here is the original poster of the event with Mark O'Leary's name in cyrillic

 Mark O'Leary was the First Irish person to headline a festival in Iceland On the same bill as Dave Douglas. Mark O'Leary performed in a trio featuring Icelandic musicians Mark O'Leary Guitar Matthias MD Hemstock on Drums and Kjartan Valdermarsson on Piano

 San Lucar de Barrameda Jazz Festival Poster Paul Bley Trio Paul Bley Piano Mark O'Leary Guitar Jeff Williams Drums

St Fin Barre's by  Mark O'Leary/Ståle Storløkken/Stein Inge Braekhus  review  by Cork Independent

 Declan O'Driscoll review of Mark O'Leary Steve Swallow Pierre Favre Concert at the Half Moon Theatre for Jazz Wise Magazine

  Vasil Hadžimanov Mark O'Leary Marko Djordjevic Concert at the Luciano Pavarottin Center Mostar

 Notice from the Sunday Times regard Kenny Wheeler Quartet Cork

 The Paul Bley Trio flier from the Bayerischerhof. Paul Bley (Piano) Mark O'Leary (Guitar) Jeff Williams (Drums)

 Mark O'Leary flier Village Voice advert for CBGB's and Mark O'Leary's performance I played on the same side of the stage as Andy Summer's did in 1977. But what was even more incredible, I played CBGB's with the great American Drummer/Composer/Pedagogue John Hollenbeck and the bar man said to me "Hey Kid, you got more people than the Poh-Leas. What he meant was that we had a bigger audience than the Police the first time they played.

 Mark O'Leary Zemlya reviewed by Brian  Morton

Mark O'Leary Self Luminous Review by David Stubbs in the Wire  

  Mark O'Leary Vince Clarke era Depeche Mode Mark O'Leary in his early career performed in one of the first Depeche Mode oriented Synth band called Voltaire, Depeche Mode were a major influence on Mark and on the band. Also his tune Supermodel is alluded to as Vince Clarke era Depeche Mode. His forthcoming album Liberty Kansas Sun has several songs redolent of Depeche Mode including Basildon Chap. Supermodel is on Chartreuse https://tibproditaly.bandcamp.com/album/chartreuse and was mentioned in the Irish Examiner interview https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41576902.html It was also nominated as Song of the Week on Cork Playlist

  Mark O'Leary Karlheinz Stockhausen "When I was a student at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, I was very fortunate to be able to study the music of Stockhausen, in particular his tape collages made at the Studio für elektronische Musik in Cologne. I also studied his klavierstücke and later the helicopter quartets. When we produced Elektronische Musik with Daniele Santini as executive producer, Stockhausen was one of the principal influences upon that work. His pronounced influence is prevalent in my work and I am fortunate that I was able to study him whilst a student in Los Angeles." Mark O'Leary

  Mark O'Leary Tangerine Dream In a recent interview Mark O'Leary, Music Teacher of Cillian Murphy, cited Tangerine Dream as a profound influence upon his music. He mentioned his inextricable links to Tangerine Dream by virtue of Conrad Schnitzler, a founder member of TD along with Klaus Schulze (whom kindly appears on the front of The Synth Show which is dedicated to him) and Edgar Froese. Schnitzler is a label mate of Mark's, on the TIBProd Italy imprint. Mark stated in a video interview that Tangerine Dream with; Edgar Froese, Christoph Franke and Peter Baumann were one of the greatest bands in history. His in Search of Hades (II-IV) Series in evocative of the Berlin School, from which Tangerine Dream primordially emanated.

  Mark O'Leary Kraftwerk Mark O'Leary has always been influenced by Kraftwerk, having seen them on Top of the Pops at a very young age, in a recent interview he intimated "I have always alluded to my electronic music as being Post Kraftwerk. They have been the biggest inspiration to me of any band and still are, my electronic work has been through many incarnations and phases, the influence that has always been the most profound and perennial is that of Kraftwerk." Mark O'Leary His albums Chartreuse, Neon Radio, Apropos of Essence, Afternoon in Utopia, Driving in Iceland and Dream of the Blue Llama all have the essences of Kraftwerk diffused into the ether.

  jazz Mark O'Leary Downbeat review Greg Buium Mark O'Leary / Mat Maneri / Matthew Shipp Chamber Trio LEO 425 ★★★★ Mark O'Leary / Mat Maneri / Randy Peterson Self-Luminous LEO 426 ★★★★ Mark O'Leary / Tomasz Stanko / Billy Hart Levitation LEO 445 ★★★½ In a matter of months, Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary has released three discs, turning his subterranean status into something demanding attention. He's had famous partners over the years—Paul Bley, Peter Erskine, Bill Bruford—but finally it's his name on top of the handbill. O'Leary's basic approach seems to straddle two dimensions. There's the relatively subdued, contained character where his sound has taken Mick Goodrick's mid-'70s lessons to heart. Then there's “Ligature” has a nursery rhyme-like tenderness. pit-bull, piling up the fuzz in an overwhelming onrush of sustained, surging electricity. The first two discs, Chamber Trio and Self-Luminous, are practically companion pieces—are p...