Updated 29 May 1999
Nightnoise came into being through a collaboration between Mícheál O'Domhnaill and Billy Oskay. During 1983 they composed and recorded some tunes at Billy Oskay's home in Portland, Oregon (US). The result was a record entitled Nightnoise, by Billy Oskay and Mícheál O'Domhnaill, released in 1984 by Windham Hill Records.
The two musicians were joined by Triona Ní Dhomhnaill (Mícheál's sister) and Brian Dunning to form a group - Nightnoise - which released its first record, Something of Time, in 1987. The group was based in Portland and enjoyed considerable success in the US and worldwide under the heading of "New Age" music (horrible phrase).
Sometime between 1990 and 1993, Billy Oskay left the group and was replaced by Johnny Cunningham.
Nightnoise toured Europe, the US and Japan in 1997, coinciding with the launch of their "live" album - The White Horse Sessions. About the same time, they moved back to Ireland after living in Portland, Oregon, since the 1980s. Johnny Cunningham has recently taken up residence in the Boston area (I believe).
Although the group has always recorded on Windham Hill Records, their contract has expired and they are considering new options (see interview with Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill).
Although Windham Hill recently updated their page (early March 1999) following a message from Nightnoise Unofficial Site, it is still out of date and not very informative.. According to Windham Hill, Nightnoise has made a record with Japanese singer Mimori Yusa (this link is to a page in Japanese) - the record is supposedly called "Mimori Yusa Meets Irish Superstars", and is due to be released by Epic (presumably only in Japan). In fact, the Nightnoise contribution the Mimori Yusa record may not be significant at all, to judge from a similar "compilation type" album, namely Galicia (Spain) piper Carlos Nuñez's A Irmandade das Estrelas , where Mícheál and Tríona play on one track. In fact there is nothing particularly noteworthy about their contribution at all (the album also features The Chieftains, Dulce Pontes, Ry Cooder, Luz Casal and many others).
Windham Hill also says that the group is appearing on a TV show called "Brid Live", aired by Irish TV channel RTE 1. In fact, this show has long since ceased to exist.
Stay tuned!
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