Local Gods
Local Gods is a Cork artist and electronic musician based in Dublin, working through the Department of Energy (DOE), a DIY imprint he founded in 2020, as both a label and an artwork. Rooted in folklore, ecology, and the commons, the DOE traces new mythologies of place through sound, text, video, and print.
Its ongoing Landscape Mixtape series gathers artists across Ireland and beyond into collaborative works of sound and image. The most recent Ambient Harvest (2025) followed Lee Lines (2021) and May Day (2022), with Irish Gothic and Celtic Futurism in development.
In 2022, the DOE released Michael Lightborne’s acclaimed ambient album Slí na Fírinne, dedicated to John Moriarty.
DOE performances and sound works have materialised at Open Ear, Base, the Botanic Resource Centre, the Pole of Inaccessibility, Coventry Cathedral (part of the Coventry Biennial), and the DOSE Weekender. The label’s Gathering Darkness series of events explores Irish traditions of hospitality, mourning and shared reflection, using sound, production design and ritual to create space for collective experience.
Described by The Quietus as “strange and incredibly special” and by the Journal of Music as “refreshingly free of boundaries,” the DOE embraces both modernity and tradition.