Check out the sounds of ANT-1 at Dali tonight

Fri, 26 Jun, 2026 - 14:24

Don O’Mahony

It was 2005 when Antoine Madiot arrived in Cork from France.

“I just came in here for three months to learn English and I never left,” he shares. “I just loved living here.”

Back home, he had played in a punk band, but it was as a sound engineer that Madiot got to know the Cork music scene when he worked behind the old desk at the now long departed Nancy Spains. It was there he met Noel Lynch, who played in such rambunctious noise making local bands as El Bastardo and [R]evolution Of A Sun. “All that art rock gang,” chuckles Madiot.

Going on to become part of the production crew at the Cork Opera House, he came across a band who played with a Hammond organ. It sparked something in him. Madiot was a big fan of Nirvana. “I loved Kurt Cobain’s attitude and his vision,” he enthuses. “His music, its simplicity and efficiency.”

But he always had a love for The Doors and Deep Purple, rock bands that gave a prominent place to the organ.

“I was a guitar player. That was my first instrument, and I was always attracted by the sound of organs,” he says. So, when he saw this instrument up close, he decided to get a portable Hammond.

“I’m not a session player at all. What I can do is simple. I just play chords and I play with the tones. I tried to bring texture in music through that sound that I really love.”

In 2008, Noel Lynch was venturing on a quite different project with Barry McAuliffe of Rulers Of The Planet, something that moved away from their punk influences and tapped into mellower and more expansive sonic terrain. Learning of Madiot’s new toy, Lynch invited him to join what would become Slow Motion Heroes, an indie supergroup that would also feature members of Hope Is Noise (Dan Breen and Joe Jolley) and Cyclefly (Jean Michel Cavallo).

Slow Motion Heroes lasted about a decade, releasing two EPs and an album, Hinterland, in 2016, before calling it a day.

In the meantime, Madiot built his own replica Hammond C3 organ. And he also got a love for synthesisers.

“I love synthesisers so much,” he purrs. “I love the sound of Moogs, Prophet 5s... there are always synthesisers in my songs. With the Hammond I think it works beautifully.”

Lockdown provided him with the opportunity to make his own music. An early song, “Liberty”, practically bursts with the desire to escape a stultifying city. Starting with some riffs he had, he built them into songs. His former bandmates offered encouragement. Naming the project ANT-1, a pun on his Christian name, he released the Time Lapse EP in 2023. Former bandmate Jean Mi expressed an interest in becoming involved, and he subsequently introduced Madiot to Kieran Hennessy, guitarist with former hardcore heroes Horse. Both played on ANT-1’s new EP, In Dystopia. Listening to the EP I’m struck by how similar it is to the sound of Slow Motion Heroes.

“I’ve learned a lot in song writing with that band,” Madiot explains. “Those chords that the Slow Mos had, they really resonated with me. And Jean Michel is also in the project as well, so, of course, there will be some things that you could find that was in Slow Mos as well. I really enjoyed playing in this band. And Slow Motion Heroes have loads of bitter-sweetness in the songs and I really like that. I love bitter-sweetness in music a lot.”