Ed Devane is a Dublin-based artist primarily working with sound and music, but with parallel interests in visual art and design. Using electronic audio feedback, home-made instruments and modular software to achieve his sound, experimentation lies at the heart of Devane's work.
As a full-time student Ed studied sound engineering and multimedia, and these two areas - music and visual design - recursively feed into his work.
Since he started making music as a teenager in Wexford, Ireland, the bulk of Ed's studio sessions have been experimental soundscapes or zither improvisations. In 2007 after years of misusing electric guitars he designed and built a custom stringed instrument to suit the playing techniques he had developed. Making this instrument would have a profound effect on his subsequent work in a number of ways.
After years of programming a sequencer to make music, getting to grips with a real instrument was humbling to begin with, but allowed for a more spontaneous composition technique. Indeed, the years spent playing in John Mary Trilogy (an improvised music group with longtime friends and collaborators Niamh de Barra, Fionn Wallace and Killian Redmond) and later FYED (with Fionn Wallace), have seen Devane's music move away from the rigidly programmed dance floor attacks of the past to a more freestyle, improvised and live approach. Gradually Ed developed techniques, instruments and software for live performances that present the audience with something unique and raw: the antithesis of perfectly preprogrammed "live" sets prevalent in club music.
Ed Devane has had music released on a number of different labels since 2005, some of which can be heard on the Discography page. To date this has mostly been of a particular style / sound, but future releases will see a wider representation of the Irish producer's work. In 2008 Devane co-founded Second Square to None (SSTN), a gig promotion collective, label and music blog. In 2010 Ed kick started his public career as a sound artist with his Stop/Run instrument ensemble.
Ed also plays with Meljoann, adding textures and sound effects to her live shows. 2011 will be spent working on a Withering Zithering release and audio-visual live show, making more custom instruments and playing gigs around the world.