A genuinely experimental musician with a vision, Tom Fahy relentlessly created music for nearly two decades, until he died last June. His work now lives on through Jamendo, with nearly 80 uploaded albums.

An Irishman having lived in Chile, Hawaii and Newfoundland, surrounded by a great and ever-changing number of musicians throughout the years, ceaselessly tampering with musical instruments “in an effort to subvert and undermine our preconditioned expectations of sound”, Quinn McCarthy was definitely not the type to do things the usual way. From 1991 to 2008, he recorded dozens of albums, mostly accompanied by a core group of four musicians, under the name Tom Fahy.

Rachael Eisley was one of those musicians, playing with Tom Fahy since 1999. At his request, she now assumes curatorial duties, meaning she’s been busy uploading the group’s massive body of work “to venues on which Creative Commons licenses are made available: Jamendo and the Internet Archive primarily. Tom did not believe music, like ideas, could be owned in an absolute sense. It was his wish that his work be made available in a way that ensured maximum accessibility and flexibility to a broad range of listeners.”

Today, 79 albums by Tom Fahy are available on Jamendo alone. The music ranges from jazz to classic contemporary, but is, above all, experimental. “Many of Tom’s compositions could be referred to as experimental jazz, explains Rachael, but I think the simpler, more broad, catch-all term with which one could refer to the group’s efforts would be ‘experimental,’ as, indeed, Tom referred to most of his compositions as experiments and referred to our recording studio as a laboratory. Moreover, few of our instruments did not undergo some preparation prior to a recording.”

In 2000, Tom Fahy and his musicians moved to Portugal Cove, Newfoundland, where they built a studio. Envisioning recording as an almost spiritual experience, they never sought to release any material until 2007 (when they created their own netlabel, Stag Records) and didn’t cultivate a following, although they did play concerts around the US and Canada.

On June 19th, 2008, Tom Fahy died from Tay-Sachs, a genetic disorder affecting brain cells, at the age of 30-something (his year of birth was never disclosed). A short but full life. “He believed that if one makes so many compromises that he no longer has time to do the things he loves, then that is the signature of a life lived in vain. Tom made no compromises and with the little time he was allotted in this life, he did what he loved and his friends were more than happy to help him.”

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