A Year in Music – 2018 – Cathal Cully (Girls Names) by Killian Laher

What are your favourite albums of 2018? 

Pendant – Make Me Know You Sweet

Lesilie Winer + Jay Glass Dubs – YMFEES

тпсб -Sekundenschlaf

Alvin Lucier -Criss Cross/Hannover

Pontiac Streator + Ulla Straus – Chat

Haron – Wandelaar

Oliver Coates – Shelley’s on Zenn-La

Aqueduct Ensemble – Improvisations on an Apricot

Loidis – A Parade

Joseph Shabason – Anne

AI Messiah – Sentience and Sapience

Any artists you discovered this year that you can’t be without? 

Maria Somerville, Unbelievable Lake, Fears, King Snuff

Are there any personal highlights, musical or otherwise from 2018? 

The European tour that we just finished has been one of the best experiences I’ve had in nearly ten years of being in this band.  We’ve been lucky to tour for the last 8 years but due to personal circumstances and head space I think this is the first one in a long long time that I felt totally present in it and could take it all in and appreciate everything about it.

How did the release of Stains on Silence work out for you? 

Exceptionally well.  We had no expectations, with such a fraught compositional period.  It’s gone under the radar a bit but we’re long past the point of worrying about how many websites pick us up. We were more than happy with the record we made and the fact we got to release it again through Tough Love was a celebration in itself.  I thought it was going to be received much worse than how it has been.  Playing the songs live has been great as people have really responded to them as we’ve flipped them round a bit again.

What inspires you these days?

Taking time out to listen.  Collin Fletcher. World of Echo in London.  Touch Sensitive Records. Cycling up steep hills.  Love. Europe.