Pioneering Today FM DJ Donal Dineen has unveiled plans to broadcast an innovative month long festival of new Irish music in November. Called FreshAir it will broadcast new irish music on his Small Hours show each night, and bring a series of live gigs to Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin.

Fresh Air live will be presented by Dineen with special artist-in-residence Katie Kim in situ for each gig.  Katie and Donal will then be joined by different special guest acts, drawn from the radio line up, in each city.  In Cork their special guest is Spilly Walker. Donal will use live visuals to transform the Pavilion night into a multi-sensory evening of pictures and sound. If anyone caught the groundbreaking Month of Sundays live series Donal developed in 2007 (and brought to Cork with Milosh and Halves in Triskel in Nov ’07) will have an idea of what to expect.

Katie Kim’s music has been alternately described as perfect swellings, sedated, distorted chaos and sculpted slow burns; words which only go some way to describing the music that bleeds from Katie Kim. Formerly a member of the Galaxy 500-esque, dreampop outfit Dae-Kim she left the band in early 2008 to start recording the songs she had been writing over the past 5 years, until a computer mishap wiped over 50 of her finished works. A collection of new songs, born from the mourning of this loss, butterflied into Twelve; her critically acclaimed debut album.

Twelve has generated an overwhelming response, with many calling it the great hidden albums of 2008.  Initially released on limited edition vinyl it was re-released on CD in early 2009 and has quickly fallen into the favourite lists of anyone that owns a copy.

First emerging in 2007 on the Donal Dineen curated Foggy Notions compilation; ’Small Hours Summer Mornings, Spilly Walker’s Let the Freak Come Out at Night married pop-craft with electro’s intensity. Although a departure from his back-catalogue, the voice was unmistakably that of David Kitt. His accomplice is younger brother Robbie Kitt, and that first track was followed by a memorable performance in the Foggy Notions tent at Electric Picnic in 2008, where they mashed-up synths, old skool house-style motifs and emotive choruses into a forty-minute rush of disco soul. Expect disco, soul, electro and lush beats underpinning Spilly’s distinctive vocal stylings. The debut album is near completion and should see a release early next year.

Fresh Air Festival features an impressive selection of acts all of whom are Irish, or based here.  A different live guest will appear on each Small Hours show during the month of November to play live, bring a selection of their favourite new tracks to spin