14/09/2026
One of the boldest things on this year’s Culture Night programme is also one of the warmest. Atóg is a live collaboration between musicians and sound artists that takes the traditional Irish session as its starting point and opens it right up ✨
The project grew out of Hana Abri Smith’s own experience of learning trad as an adult. Before moving to Belfast eight years ago she’d never been to a session, having assumed, like a lot of people, that the music belonged to those who’d grown up inside it. What she found instead was an informal, generous way of learning, where listening matters as much as playing and the music passes through shared experience. Atóg takes that discovery and builds a performance around it, deconstructing the session format to reveal the foundations beneath and show that much of what sounds impossibly complex is really ornamentation, style and years of individual expression.
On stage are Hana Abri Smith, Joshua Burnside, Brendy Kerr, Catriona Ní Ghríbín and Neil Óg Martin, playing across guitar, fiddle, banjo, concertina, piano accordion, keyboard, bodhrán, whistles and cello. As they go, sound artists and producers Cameron Clarke and J SHIELDS sample, loop and manipulate the performances live, stretching and fragmenting familiar melodies into evolving layers that blur the line between traditional, electronic and experimental. Think of it like a city explorer wandering off the main streets into hidden alleyways, the tunes gradually drifting beyond recognisable forms into unfamiliar territory.
Accessibility sits right at the heart of it. By lifting the session out of the pub and into a welcoming, informal space with comfortable seating, Atóg lets you come and go as you please and take it all in at your own pace across the two hours, with natural pauses throughout.
Atóg takes over Vault Artist Studios’ newest building, the former Masonic Lodge at 197 Newtownards Road, on Culture Night, this Friday 18th September, from 4pm to 6pm. Free entry, just turn up.
