Caimin Gilmore —BlackGate
Caimin Gilmore
Blackgate
Release date: August 1, 2025
On Friday, August 1, 2025, Irish composer and double bassist Caimin Gilmore releases his debut record BlackGate, via New Amsterdam Records in collaboration with Dublin based Ten Spot Records. BlackGate features renowned cellist Kate Ellis, harpist Lavinia Meijer, and Caimin Gilmore on double bass & DX7.
Well-known as one of Ireland's leading young double bassists, BlackGate marks Gilmore's emergence as a major new compositional voice, in a style reflective of his expansive collaborations as a performer. BlackGate is an instrumental composition and genre-fluid journey through myriad evocative sonic spaces, with exquisite writing not just for his own double bass, but for the harp and cello, accompanied by subtle Yamaha DX7 synthesizer passages that provide further sonic depth and color. The record encapsulates Gilmore’s idiosyncratic playing style, which has formed the bedrock to his work with artists across a diffuse spectrum of musical styles—from contemporary music to pop, classical and folk—in turn, becoming a manifestation of them all.
Gilmore is a member of Ireland’s ground breaking new music group Crash Ensemble. An interdisciplinary and versatile modern musician, he has shared the stage with internationally renowned artists like Lisa Hannigan, Dermot Kennedy, Aaron Dessner, Jessy Buckley, Dirty Projectors, Sam Amidon, Greg Saunier, to name a few, and is currently touring with Irish bands Ye Vagabonds & John Francis Flynn (Rough Trade/River Lea). He features on over 40 recordings, including releases from Damon Albarn, Boy Genius, and on Leonard Cohen’s posthumous album ‘Thanks for the Dance’ with European ensemble s t a r g a z e, among many others.
Kate Ellis is Artistic Director of Crash Ensemble, cellist with Martin Hayes’ Common Ground Ensemble and has toured with Bono as part of his Stories of Surrender show 2022-2023. Lavinia Meijer is a Sony Classical recording artist and the only classical musician to have reached the top 10 in the Dutch album charts for 3 consecutive solo albums. Her recording of Philip Glass’ ‘Metamorphosis’ went platinum in the Netherlands.
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About BlackGate
BlackGate sits at the cutting edge of a long history of artists working within a wide range of musical styles dating back as far as Velvet Underground’s John Cale, and continuing through artists like Deerhoof, Bryce Dessner, Sufjan Stevens, and Ryan Lott (Son Lux). “There has been a long lineage of non classical artists working primarily in ‘commercial’ music who dig from the contemporary classical music well & also write it,” says Gilmore. “For me, the first time the idea that this cross pollination was rigorously happening was listening to NewAm Artistic Director William Brittelle at Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival (Cork) in 2019, chatting about ‘genre fluidity’ in music on a panel discussion with curator Mary Hickson. I ended up doing an impromptu gig alongside William and the musicians he had brought over to the festival to perform his music. That interaction cemented, and made sense of, how ‘classical’ composers and musicians were also working in genre-fluid ways internationally and this gave assurance to the idea that my musical ideas, amassed performing across genres, had credibility as a notated work also.”
On creating the work, Gilmore explains: ”I was interested in writing a piece that lived somewhere—harmonically and structurally—between indie and minimalist music; using extended string techniques to create a spectral sound world. At the time I was playing and jumping across a broad range of styles—contemporary music, folk/Irish traditional music, playing in indie groups, and symphonic repertoire with orchestras. I felt that the playing techniques I was using across these genres were transferable, and the diffuse sonic worlds were conducive with each other–they could live together if it was a reflection of how I approached them, or maybe how I understood them. It felt most natural to me to write something with this cross pollination of genres in mind. BlackGate as such became a natural reflection of the different types of music and people I was performing and collaborating with at the time of writing it.”
BlackGate was commissioned by The BlackGate Cultural Centre (Galway) using funds from the Arts Council of Ireland. The commissioners intention was for Gilmore to create a genre-fluid amalgam and reflection of his multifaceted career. The work was written, notated, and recorded over the course of a year-long residency for Dublin City Council. It had its world premiere at Kilkenny Arts Festival (IRL) in 2024 and a further performance as part of New Music Dublin Festival in the National Concert Hall of Ireland, March 2025. It will receive its US premiere on July 21st at the PS21 Centre for Contemporary Performance (Chatham), from Lavinia Meijer and celebrated American cellist Clarice Jensen.
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Credits:
BlackGate composed by Caimin Gilmore.
Performed by:
Kate Ellis – Cello & Piano
Caimin Gilmore – Double Bass & DX-7
Lavinia Meijer – Concert Harp
Tape parts improvised by Kate Ellis & Caimin Gilmore.
Strings recorded in Sonic Studios, Dublin, by Adrian Hart & Ber Quinn.
Harp recorded in Studio Joneski, Utrecht, by Sam Jones.
Edited by Adrian Hart.
Mixed & Mastered by Francesco Fabris, Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavik.
Tape Transfer by Sean Coleman & Phil Kinrade.
Half Speed Mastering by Barry “Bazza” Grint at Air Studios London.
Liner notes by Neva Elliott.
Editing by Dhammika Wijetunge.
Photography by David Six.
Artwork Omphalos, 1993, oil on canvas (Diptych) by John Noel Smith.
Design layout by M&E Studio.
Vinyl Production & Project Management by Dek Hynes, Ten Spot Records.
Thanks to Peadar King, Kate Ellis, Lavinia Meijer, Adrian Hart, Bernard Quinn, Francesco Fabris, Sam Jones, André de Ridder, Oisín Walsh-Peelo, Méabh McKenna, John Noel Smith, Gemma Doherty, Ben Sloan, David Six, Olga Barry, Marjie Kaley, Emma Hannon, Dhammika Wijetunge, Ror Conaty, Matty Bolger, Emelie Lidström, John Harris & Jonathan Pearson. Special thanks to Ten Spot Records & New Amsterdam for releasing this record.
Commissioned by the BlackGate Cultural Centre Galway using funds from The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Mixed & digitally mastered by Francesco Fabris (Greenhouse Studios Reykjavik). Half Speed 10” vinyl mastering with Barry ‘Bazza’ Grint (Air Studios London).
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