About

Linda Buckley is an award winning Irish composer (born in Cork, 1979) who creates electronic and acoustic music, and has a particular interest in working across many disciplines, most notably film and in the realm of drone and dark ambient music. Her NMC record From Ocean’s Floor was featured by Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6 as “beautiful music – here is somebody really special”. Her work has been described as “sublime and brilliant” (BBC Radio 3), “engaging with an area of experience that new music is generally shy of, which, simplified and reduced to a single word, I’d call ecstasy” (Bob Gilmore, Journal of Music). She has written extensively for orchestra (BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ NSO), was elected to Aosdana in 2021, and is Associate Artist with Chamber Music Scotland.

She has worked in many collaborative contexts including scoring film by Kathryn Ferguson (Nothing Compares co-composed with Irene Buckley, nominated for Best Score at the IFTA Awards and Cinema Eye Honors), Mark Cousins (Like a Huge Scotland and A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things), Pat Collins (That He May Face the Rising Sun co-composed with Irene Buckley, Living in a Coded Land, Henry Glassie: Field Work) and Tadhg O’Sullivan (To The Moon). Awards include a Fulbright scholarship to New York University, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Frankfurt Visual Music Award (for Silk Chroma) and Gold at the New York Festivals Radio Awards (for Mother’s Blood, Sister Songs documentary with Athena Media).

Recent collaborations include new work for Liam Byrne and Crash Ensemble, Gudrun Gut (Einstürzende Neubauten), Andrew Zolinsky (for Dark Music Days, hcmf and New Music Dublin). She was invited by John Schaefer’s New Sounds Live (WNYC) to present the New York premiere of a new live score to the silent horror film Nosferatu (co-composed with Irene Buckley) at Brookfield Place. Linda holds a Music Degree from University College Cork, a Masters in Music and Media Technologies and a PhD in Composition from Trinity College Dublin. She has lectured in Composition at Trinity College Dublin, Pulse College at Windmill Lane and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In September 2020 her NMC record, From Ocean’s Floor was released: “The Irish composer combines traditional séan-nos singing with an electronic soundscape, connecting past and future … It’s clear how much Buckley deeply connects her past to her present, opening up possibilities for our mutual musical futures.” Guardian – Album of the Month, ‘a masterpiece in connecting the past and future.’ Evening Standard

Past events

November 2025
New album, Thar Farraige, out now

Thar Farraige has been released by Chamber Music Scotland.

The album weaves contemporary chamber music with Irish and Scottish folk traditions. Its title track ‘Thar Farraige’ features Brìghde Chaimbeul and Maxwell Quartet, merging traditional instrumentation with electronics inspired by keening and emigration ballads. The album also includes ‘Samhain,’ a piece for solo pipes and electronics, as well as ‘A Path of Yellow Moonlight’ for solo electronics. ‘Thar Farraige’ and ‘Samhain’ were originally commissioned by Chamber Music Scotland

  • “The drones of Scottish smallpipes and the playing of a string quartet interweaving, coalescing, departing and reuniting.” — The Quietus
  • “A completely wonderful meeting of contemporary chamber music with both Irish and Scottish traditional music, and an exploration of the idea of home.” — Unclassified, BBC3
March 2026
Numarimur at Musica Sacra Nova Festival at Moscow Philharmonic Society

Numarimur for voices and electronics performed by CEAM Voices at Musica Sacra Nova festival at Moscow Philharmonic Society for Vox: Deus – Homo – Machina” concert as a part of Festival’s experimental “Laboratory” program at the Chamber Hall.

March 2026
Circuit Bend performed at the Walled City Music Festival, Derry

Circuit Bend arranged for flute, viola and harp performed by Sabrina Hu, Ed Creedon and Cliona Doris at the Walled City Music Festival, Derry

March 2026
Irish Chamber Orchestra perform Fall Approaches, University Concert Hall Limerick

Fall Approaches for string orchestra performed with Beethoven, Dublin and Limerick

March 2026
Seancheann for Double Bass and Electronics performed at Ortús Festival, Cork

Seancheann performed by Luis Cabrera, Sunday 1st March 3pm Curtis Auditorium, MTU Cork School of Music

January 2026
Nathan Sherman performs The Thin Veil, UCD Recital Series

In Dublin for UCD Recital Lunchtime Series, Nathan Sherman performs The Thin Veil for viola and electronics, along with music from record The Gentle Erasure of Time.

November 2025
Exploding Stars performed by Darragh Morgan in Malaysia

Exploding Stars for violin and electronics performed by Darragh Morgan, at the Monument Music Academy, Melaka

September 2025
Metropolis Live Score at Glasgow Cathedral Festival

Live Score to Metropolis film presented at the Glasgow Cathedral Festival, co-composed with Irene Buckley, for two percussionists with electronics.

July 2025
Nosferatu Live Score at Kinsale Arts Weekend

Live score for viola, cello, organ and electronics performed at St. Catherine’s Cultural Centre, co-composed with Irene Buckley at Kinsale Arts Weekend.

July 2025
Thar Farraige selected for the New Music Biennial – Bradford and Southbank London

Thar Farraige will be performed at the New Music Biennial held in Bradford (Loading Bay, June 8th) and Southbank Centre London (July 6th).

With Brìghde Chaimbeul, Ailis Sutherland (pipes) and the Maxwell Quartet