A VOICE drunk on honey, a double bass, suitcase drums, acoustic and electric guitars and a harmonica. The music of Moriarty floats between folk, country, blues and cabaret set somewhere around Dallas in the 1930's, the Russian Taïga and Paris. An infectious melody is carried by the luminous Rosemary, supported by unsettling lyrics and oozing train-like beats. Moriarty, a Franco-American band, a neurotic puppy and four schizophrenic kittens trapped in an aircraft baggage hold. Shoulder dance and shivers down the spine.

Formed in Paris as the century turned, Moriarty saw five young musicians adopt each other and write songs like novels or short movies. Their identities split between America and Europe, the members of Moriarty are guided by the surreal, believing in an animist fashion that some objects have a soul : a squeaking floorboard, a hotel bell, the rhythm produced when battering a well-traveled suitcase, a taxicab dispatch microphone, a whisk and other chance findings crawl into their songs. But this is also music for the joy of spontaneous story-telling, of spilling out lines that ease into the rehearsal room and then form into characters, adventures and nostalgia.

Rosemary Moriarty : Singer, xylophone, thumb piano, spoons, tambourine, scotch-tape trumpet...
Rosemary was bewitched as a child and was already singing at the age of 8 with her father, an american (Ohio) folk musician, who taught her several hundred american songs. She has also extensively studied classical music and opera singing.

Arthur Moriarty : Acoustic guitars, drum-suitcase, piano
Arthur discovered playing guitar at the age of 20 during his first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a sailboat. He really learnt guitar during a quest in West Africa and in North Mississippi where he was taught by R.L. Boyce.

Zim Moriarty : Double-bass, acoustic guitar, music box, suitcase drum
As a kid, Zim got into low frequencies by listening to the roar of aircraft taking off; he later picked up an old east-german double-bass in a pawn shop and never let it go. He is now working on a project about memory and reminiscence which mixes video, architecture, theatre and music. He is also an architect and a theatre set designer.

Thomas Moriarty : Chromatic and diatonic harmonicas, kazoo, drilling machines, jew's harp
Thomas started with a harmonica given to him by his grandfather. He has developed a very unique style of playing and listeners have often mistaken him and his harmonicas for a bandoneon, a purring cat, an irish fiddle, a crater in the moon, a semi-automatic machine gun, a spot in the sun...

Charles Moriarty : Electric and resonator guitars
Charles originally played the peruvian Charango in Lima, Peru, where he grew up. He later became fascinated by brechtian atmospheres that he has transcribed on dirty dobro and electric guitars.

Moriarty also plays with :

Vincent Talpaert Moriarty Drums Vince is also a double bass player, founding member and producer of the bands Bo Weavil and Don Cavalli

Eric Tafani Dubessay Moriarty : Drums He plays Drums with many bands and is a founding member of the roots funk combo Ceux qui Marchent Debout

Recordings
Debut Album :“Gee Whiz, but this is a Lonesome Town”, Oct. 2007 release
The album was recorded live in 7 days, in a farm near Merlin the magician's tomb.

Influences
A 1957 acoustic guitar plucked one night by Joan Baez. A dobro played by Ali Farka Touré. Mistakes and misunderstandings. Lewis Carroll. The sibling-like love and rivalry of the group. Soft spoken violence and anger. An intense yearning by five creatures who want to play as one. Travelling around with your home on your back. Everyone Loves. A diabolical mind.

Performances
Moriarty has performed on the Dublin Docks, in prisons and mental institutions, on French national television, in a ruined castle in Tuscany, on a transatlantic ship, on a night train, in the streets of Paris and in many concert halls, bars and clubs.