A retreat works when people can drop the pace of the week and pay attention to where they are. Live ambient music gives a room that permission: a sound to settle into during yoga, a slow meal, or an hour spent looking out at the hills.
Thunderclap Murphy performs in the room as the group settles. He loops live flute, kalimba and glockenspiel in real time, layer over layer, until the space carries a slow, wordless soundtrack. The music asks nothing of anyone. People sit, lie back, stretch, or carry on with whatever the session is for, and the sound holds the room together.
A recent performance, filmed live.
What happens in the room
The effect is close to meditative. He builds each piece live and lets it move slowly, so the music marks time without steering it. It suits the naturally quiet parts of a retreat: the opening sit, the wind-down, the long afternoon.
Part of a longer tradition
Ambient music has a long history as a tool for stillness. Brian Eno wrote Music for Airports to change how a room feels, Max Richter’s Sleep is built for rest, and East Forest scores meditation and retreats. Thunderclap Murphy works in that lineage, in the Japanese kankyō ongaku (environmental music) tradition, performed live in the room.
What a retreat books
A retreat books one performer and a self-contained event. He brings his own instruments, loop rig and PA, sets up in 45 to 60 minutes, and packs down the same day. The music scales to the moment, from a single wind-down session to a full day’s backdrop, and to the setting, from a yoga studio to a country house.
Thunderclap Murphy is the ambient performance name of Aidan Murphy, a Dublin musician with two decades of work in Irish arts venues. He performs solo, building each piece live from flute, kalimba, glockenspiel and synth. He gave a live ambient performance at Fumbally Stables, Dublin in 2024, and plays the So Say So festival at Wexford Arts Centre in July 2026.