Waiting Space
ABOUT:
'Waiting Space' is an audio & visual project - and alias of Waterford-based, musician and artist, Chris Falconer.
Through a D.I.Y. process that is enabled by contemporary technologies, as 'Waiting Space', he creates self-recorded/self-produced songs - characterised by dynamic vocals and cinematic instrumentals, typically blending programming, electronics, and live-instrumentation. Each piece of musical-output is 'complemented' by visuals which Falconer independently creates in response - including artwork, animations, and short films.
'Waiting Space' began in 2013 as a side project - initially a platform for musical ideas that 'did not fit' his existing bands’ catalogues. As other projects subsequently went on extended hiatuses, and Falconer found himself with an increasingly irregular schedule in which to create music (as his artistic-output was forced to compete with his full-time work within the architecture-industry), embracing Waiting Space as a solo/D.I.Y. project, and recording in domestic settings, made increasing sense.
The process also acted as a catalyst for Falconer to learn more about the technical aspects of music-making, including recording, mixing, & producing, and developing new skills in animation and video-production, in order to create the 'appropriate' visuals to match his sounds & words.
Radioplay has included RTÉ Lyric FM, RTÉ 2FM, Beat 102-103, a number of regional stations, and occasional international radioplay. Uniquely, given the project's visual aspect, Waiting Space has also crossed over into the gallery world: the Waiting Space piece 'Cocoon' (accompanied by a drone video filmed by Falconer of an empty Waterford City during COVID-19 ‘lockdown'), featured in the exhibition 'Stories From Lismore & Beyond' in Lismore Castle Arts Gallery; and Waiting Space has also been commissioned by the Luan Gallery Athlone, to create a number of musical-scores for ‘virtual walkthrough’ videos of the gallery’s exhibitions, a number of times during 2020 and 2021. Most recently, a Waiting Space audio/visual piece called ‘Unseen Happenings’, was commissioned by Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford, with the installation being viewable on-site in March 2022.
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What's On The Horizon:
Waiting Space will be releasing an e.p. in late 2022, called 'Unseen Happenings', consisting of the musical scores created by the artist, as part of commissions by galleries and arts centres. In addition to some yet-unreleased commissions - the e.p. will include the tracks 'Luan', and 'Generation Loss' - both commissioned by the Luan Gallery Athlone, to act as musical accompaniments to a ‘virtual walkthrough’ video of the gallery's exhibitions in 2021. - and the e.p. will also include the score of 'Unseen Happenings', an audio/visual piece by Waiting Space, which was commissioned by Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford, with the installation being viewable on-site in March 2022.
In parallel with this, Falconer is currently writing a debut Waiting Space album, tentatively titled ‘T-oileán’ (Irish for ‘the island’), which is a lose concept album revolving around Valentia Island, off of the coast of Kerry. Falconer spent each summer holiday until the age of 12 on the island, in his grandfather’s holiday home there, from which a window looked out on dramatic views of neighbouring islands, sea-caves, a lighthouse, and the Atlantic Ocean. The island itself harbours many folktales, has a historic slate quarry, and cinematic landscape. All of these images have regularly appeared in dreams that the artists has had throughout his teenage and adult life, since stopping visiting the island. When COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted in mid-2020, Falconer visited the island for what was only his second time since childhood – and its expansiveness, inspiring quality cemented an idea to write a collection of songs about the island. During this stay, he also filmed footage of various locations of note on the island, and the surrounding Kerry coastline, all of which will feature in films to accompany the music pieces which will make up the album. As Falconer has recently begun converting an old Victorian gate lodge to a home and studio, and hopes to finalise the album in this new space, with the aim to to release this in early 2023.
Waiting Space merchandise is also available from the project’s BandCamp site - including t-shirts, stickers, and signed and sealed artwork prints (often ‘evolutions’ of recent cover artwork from the project).
As part of a way of sharing insight into his creative process - Waiting Space intermittently releases demos, or unfinished songs, that are only available on his BandCamp page - which he calls ‘Púca Versions’ (‘Púca’ being both the Irish word for ‘ghost’ - and also what the icon in the Waiting Space logo is called).
Falconer describes these below:
‘Not every idea works out / is easily finished. Sometimes sounds just work in isolation, or other times there's a chorus or a missing part of a song that you know you will write eventually, but you have to wait for it to come (weeks, months... genuinely, in some cases years). But I keep all my demos on my phone - listening back to them occasionally to see if I can work through them, or figure out what's missing. Doing this, I find that I often become attached to these songs in their unfished format as well. And even though I know that they could be more 'polished' or a 'bigger' song in the future, I often wish I could share the unfinished, honest, ideas that the songs are when they're in this demo state. So, for a while now I've been thinking of releasing some of these occasionally, as 'Púca Versions'. 'Púca' is both the Irish for ghost - and also what I call the icon in my logo - and I feel that that ethereal notion of the ghost, or spirit, of a song, makes sense with these unfinished, but still present, pieces of ideas.’
