‘Tom Fahy' was an assemblage of musicians headed by multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and County Galway native Tom Fahy, born Quinn McCarthy (1971-19 June 2008.). Core members included Jiang Dan, Rachael Eisley, Zhang Li and Liu Kaige, while other players were drafted for the requirements of particular pieces. Their 50+ album catalogue was the fruit of a 9-year collaboration initiated while the core members were in residence in Honolulu, Hawai'i. To each album, the members brought a myriad of musical competencies.

Jiang Dan (born Jiang Daoming), an only child, was born in Honolulu on 12 June 1971. A master stone-mason, Dan did not assume the role of chief percussionist with Tom Fahy until 1999. However, with his mother, a classically-trained pianist, Dan studied counterpoint, music theory and harmony throughout his childhood. The self-described avant-garde drummer utilizes custom-modified Pearl drum kits.

Rachael Eisley, (b. 24 December 1974), is the only child of Lionel William and Vera (nee Spence) Eisley. She was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, but spent her early years in Montreal, Quebec, where her father was a financier. When Eisley was four years old, her father died of a heart attack while driving in a car with his wife and daughter. After his death, her mother worked as a school teacher. In 1986, when her mother remarried, the family returned to their native St. John's.

As music was an early passion of Eisley's, Vera encouraged her daughter to experiment liberally with many instruments, and so it is little wonder that Eisley developed proficiency with the guitar, keyboard, French horn and harp. Eisley cites Lonnie Mack, Link Wray and Duane Eddy as early influences on her development as a guitarist. It was chiefly as a guitarist that Eisley approached Fahy; later, emphasis was placed on her synthesizer work. Eisley was diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus in 2002 and was absent from the group until 2007, although she recorded her parts in-absentia.

Zhang Li, (b. 1 September 1976), a first-generation Chinese-American, is the daughter of inventor Sammo Li (the group's 2005 album, 'Inventor!' was inspired by the life and work of Mr. Li). Upon graduation from the University of Hawai'i in 1999, where she was studying archaeology, she began her collaboration with Fahy, writing parts for bass, electric xindi, oboe, flute, zither and upright bass. Like Dan and Eisley, Li is a self-trained musician.

Liu Kaige, (b. 8 April 1968), a San Francisco native, not only played the bass cello, violin and gehu, but also served as the group's chief technologist and sound engineer. Kaige, once a renowned North Shore pipeline surfer, was introduced to Fahy through his cousin, Jiang Dan. It was Kaige that developed the group's first sound-stage in Haleiwa on Waialua Bay. There, the group, in its infancy, began to flesh out the sounds that would inform their later works.

Tom Fahy, the group's leader and chief composer, was a largely self-taught musician, whom took only counterpoint lessons with teacher and composer Aestrid Byrne. Fahy cited Rachmaninoff and Schoenberg as early influences on his piano compositions. And it was at the age of 8 while watching Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer (1966) and listening to the film's accompanying score performed by The Sandals (a.k.a. The Sandells) that he chose also to pursue the guitar. Formerly a computer and software engineer, Fahy developed software that was employed regularly by the group to augment their compositions. Fahy died on the evening of 19 June 2008; he is interred on the island of Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay.

The group recorded from their Conception Bay studio, approximately 20 minutes north of St. John's, Newfoundland; ‘My Story’ was their last album.

*****

Progressive Recursion (PR) Software: Tom Fahy has developed a fully working software application with which the group is able to effectively simulate the harmonics and sonic anomalies characteristic of a symphony or full orchestral arrangement with limited initial sonic input. By exploiting the principal of progressive recursion, perhaps best exemplified by the recursive phenomenon generated by two mirrors in parallel, the group is able to affect a desired sonic end approximating the natural sound of several instruments without enlisting the support of an ensemble.

How does it work? Following a deployment on what Fahy refers to as a ‘learning machine,’ the software replicates each sample sound progressively, then re-pitches each of the successive sub-samples in a scalar way, effectively simulating the sonic qualities produced by a battery of instruments. Special attention is paid to the generation of acoustic variance in an effort to simulate the perceptual differences that can be discerned from one instrument to another in a traditional performance.

Adaptive Mimetics (AM): Inspired by the work of Rene Gerard, Fahy has actively incorporated Adaptive Mimetic algorithms into his Progressive Recursion software, whereby the so-called ‘learning machine’ will imitate a mere hum or randomized auditory artifact with the sonic qualities of a selected instrument. In this way, initial compositions may be accomplished by humming alone; the output then undergoes replication, pitching and rearrangement through PR.

*****

Band Members:

Tom Fahy: Piano, Trumpet, Saxophone [Alto, Baritone, Contrabass] And Lead Guitars

Liu Kaige: Bass Cello, Violin, Gehu And Workstations

Jiang Dan: Percussions And Theremin

Zhang Li: Bass, Electric Xindi, Oboe And Zither

Rachael Eisley: French Horn, Harp, Rhythm Guitars And Synthesizers

Emer Mulholland: Acoustic and Electric Guitars

Baer Schlesinger: Production

Zaytsev, 2008-Present: Curation, Trumpet, Saxophone and Trombone

Alvaro Macaya, 1991-1998: Percussions

Marco Falabella, 1991-1998: Bass

Vicente Labarca, 1991-1998: Rhythm Guitar