Patrick McGinley (born 1975) is an american born musician and theatre artist who has lived and worked in europe since 1996. from august 1996 until september 1998 he lived in paris, where he studied theatre and began his sound experiments in the context of those studies. moving to london in november of 1998, he began a collection of found sounds and field recordings that would become the basis of all his work. soon after, he began creating compositions with the minimal technical set-up of an analogue 4-track and 3 guitar effects pedals. he has composed works for several theatre performances, including the works of his own company, as well as performing live soundworks for others. his work concentrates on the framing of sounds from our environment which normally pass through our ears unnoticed and unremarked, but which out of context become unrecognisable, alien and extraordinary: crackling charcoal, a squeaking escalator, a buzzing insect, or one’s own breath.

current projects:
patrick’s fourth cd as murmer was released earlier this year by the american record label ground fault. This follows releases for bake records (netherlands), s’agita recordings (italy), and absurd (greece). he is also currently working with multiple performance companies for upcoming productions, and has spent much of the last year touring a recent work with the parisian company urba in france, england, and denmark. He is a co-founder and chairman of framework, an organisation that produces a weekly radio show on london’s resonance104.4fm and organises and promotes live events for artists working in the realm of field recording and phonography. he is constantly developing new material, solo and in collaboration with other sound, visual and performance artists including rotozaza, urba, jonathan coleclough and michael northam.