Guitarist, composer and producer Aengus Hackett has been promoting jazz in the west of Ireland for over ten years through the Galway Jazz Festival and his JAZZGate series in The Black Gate. A graduate of the prestigious Conservatory of Amsterdam, Aengus studied under world-renowned guitarist Jesse Van Ruller and his past creative projects include explorations of Irish and Turkish folk music, Javanese Gamelan and post-rock.
Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been a busy and creative year for Aengus. Earlier this year, he gave into a lifelong passion for electronic music and released his acclaimed debut EP as Penji. In November 2020, he put out Shimmer, a new series of compositions for guitar and electronics. Supported by the Arts Council, for this project Aengus explores composing through free improvisation using guitars, mixers and an array of effects pedals to bring the listener on a journey of lush harmonies and textures.
The musical moments which happen in the heat of the moment during improvisation have always been the most exciting to me, and so this series of pieces was my effort to capture that in the writing process.
Aengus Hackett
