Donnacha Costello

The Only Way to Win is Not to Play the Donnacha Costello

How many of today’s producers have been releasing music for 13 years? Not Many. How many will still be recording 13 years from now? Hard to say. What can be said without doubt however is that Donnacha Costello is in this for the long haul. Since 1996 he has released dozens of 12?s and made significant contributions to electronic music from 2001’s classic ambient album Together Is The New Alone to 2004’s universally acclaimed Colorseries to 2006’s rigorously conceptual 6x6=36 amongst others. Shedding the skin of his ten year old MINIMISE label, Costello emerges from its semantic stranglehold to bring us his new label and platform LOOK LONG. From this first release it is clear that Costello aims to produce work of lasting quality and beauty with little regard for what a turbulent marketplace might expect of him. Complexity and simplicity are addressed in equal measure here and with some surprise we find traces of Eric Satie, Chet Baker, Pat Metheny and Steve Reich. Perhaps unsurprisingly we also find the unmistakable traces of grace and emotion that have become Costello’s trademarks.