Irish composer and double bassist Caimin Gilmore has released “MVE I,” today, the latest single from his forthcoming debut album, BlackGate, which is set for release on August 1, 2025, via New Amsterdam Records in collaboration with Dublin-based Ten Spot Records. The new single is accompanied by a visualiser created by Steve O’Connor, which will also form part of the live visuals for the album.
“MVE I” showcases Gilmore’s talent for creative and flowing orchestration. The track features a long, pulsing harp melody that develops and modulates alongside lightly syncopated and arpeggiated string parts. These elements disintegrate into noise with the added texture of the Yamaha DX7, a classic 1980s synthesiser.
MVE I is now available to stream.
Gilmore, known as one of Ireland’s leading young double bassists, is a member of the groundbreaking music group Crash Ensemble and his work on BlackGate marks his emergence as a significant new compositional voice. The album is an instrumental, genre-fluid journey featuring renowned cellist Kate Ellis and harpist Lavinia Meijer, alongside Gilmore on double bass and DX7.
On his connection with the DX7, Gilmore says, “The DX7 has unlimited variations in ways to express yourself, and I think that was my attraction to it. I noticed how similar manipulating the sound on the synth was to playing an acoustic instrument—manipulating the sound of the oscillators felt very similar to what I do with my bowing hand to change sound.”
BlackGate reflects Gilmore’s extensive collaborations as a performer, which span contemporary music, pop, classical, and folk. He has shared the stage with artists like Lisa Hannigan, Dermot Kennedy, and Damon Albarn, and has featured on over 40 recordings, including Boygenius and Leonard Cohen’s posthumous album ‘Thanks for the Dance’.
On creating Blackgate, 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.”
The work is being released by Ten Spot Records in collaboration with New Amsterdam Records on audiophile quality 10” vinyl, cassette & digital, from August 1st 2025.
Each record is housed in a custom-made, lithographically printed 10” Tip-On deluxe gatefold jacket produced by Ten Spot Records with layout by M&E Studio Sweden. The album has been designed and mixed to be listened to on vinyl record. Pressed at Optimal Media, Germany, on 100g vinyl.
Hand numbered and limited to 500 copies available to pre-order now.
Shipping August 2025. Hand-numbered and limited to 500 copies.
Bandcamp: https://caimingilmore.bandcamp.com/album/blackgate