New Radicals
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
new radicals 30th March 2012 UTZON ROOM SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 1st April 2012 THE STREET THEATRE CANBERRA ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING new radicals Artistic Directors Claire Edwardes & Damien Ricketson program Matthew Wright: Breakdown flute, clarinet, percussion, keyboard, violin & cello [AP] Michael Norris: Save Yourself flute, clarinet, accordion, synth, violin & cello [WP] Øyvind Torvund: Neon Forest Space clarinet, percussion, electric guitar, cello & electronics [AP] - interval - Ekrem Mülayim: and we chart the topography of a moment solo percussion [WP] Yannis Kyriakides: Zeimbekiko 1918 violin, electric guitar & electronics [AP] Simon Steen-Andersen: On And Off And To And Fro clarinet, vibraphone, cello & 3 megaphones [AP] WP – World Premiere AP – Australian Premiere performers Lamorna Nightingale: flute Jason Noble: clarinet Claire Edwardes: percussion Zubin Kanga: piano James Crabb: conductor/accordion Zane Banks: electric guitar Veronique Serret: violin Geoffrey Gartner: cello ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE Ensemble Offspring has always Thanks to John Cage there are now taken pleasure in introducing the several decades of rich and varied unheard to Australian audiences. sound-based practices that have In New Radicals we have put to- helped dispel the idea that the gether a program of international production of music is necessarily composers whose sounds we be- the output of conventional Western lieve represent a fresh and optimis- instruments. What is interesting in tic assessment of the music of our many of the works in this program, time. All are unashamedly explora- however, is the highly notated tory in their search for new ways to reassessment of those liberated construct and receive music. And sounds back into combination with although all have now-established traditional instruments. careers, all are relatively young, meaning that much of their musi- In New Radicals the represented cal contribution may still be yet to composers all express themselves come. using a large assortment of acous- tic and electronic media. There is Making proclamations about new also a curious mashup of ‘hi’ and trends and directions in music is ‘lo-fi’ aesthetics at play. Although reckless, especially when we are these works sit within a ‘fine-mu- in the thick of it. However, despite sic’ tradition, with all the perfec- the stylistic diversity of the works tionist trappings of meticulous no- on this program, there are some tation and technical sophistication, definite shared tendencies with their soundworlds tend toward the the composers’ approach to writ- unrefined: DIY instruments, eve- ing. ryday objects and cheap technolo- gies (be they kids instruments or One of the most striking is the rise $1 contact-mics). The sound of im- of the auxiliary instrument. While perfect media and all its unwanted the performance of odd objects for sound-artifacts are not suppressed novel sound effect has long been but embraced as a logical continu- the domain of that peculiar breed ation of the pursuit of timbre. of musician – the percussionist – no performer in this program, re- The works of UK-based composer gardless of instrument, escapes a and turntablist Matthew Wright complex multitasking excursion frequently employ DJs and special- through a battery of unconvention- ist new music performers in com- al sound-sources. Everything from bination with digital media. Wright megaphones in the case of the describes his compositional aes- Steen-Andersen, to melodicas in thetic as “music at the edge of col- the Norris and as for the Torvund lapse”, a type of ecstasy found at … the table on stage probably says the limits or boundaries of musical it all. material. The short yet monolithic 1 Breakdown walks a blurry line Mangling gestures from highfa- between momentum and stasis, luting baroque to garish 80s pop the furious activity of the perform- to distorted metal, the music of ers countered by a rock-like rhyth- Norwegian Øyvind Torvund re- mic stability. Wright describes the sists categorisation. His ongoing structure as “gradually, obsessive- Bandrom installation, for exam- ly getting shorter”, likening it to ple, see musicians and spectators the “progress of a glacier pushing teaching one another compositions back the earth around it”. He also by ear in informal spaces (such as evokes the confused energy at that caravans) in an epic exploration moment in which a caged animal of oral tradition and the imperfect is set free. reproduction of ideas. Folk mu- sic makes a tangible appearance The first of our two world pre- in his Neon Forest Space, with a mieres in tonight’s program is from traditional Norwegian melody. The New Zealand composer and soft- clarinetist’s grammar of ornamen- ware developer Michael Norris. tation, however, is extrapolated to Written for Ensemble Offspring, ludicrous extremes in a manic ac- Norris’ new work Save Yourself, companiment of prepared electric requires the musicians to utilise guitar and percussionist perform- conventional instruments (flute, ing ruler, velcro, zipper, combs (to clarinet, violin, cello) in combina- name but a few). The extensive tion with melodicas and flexitones. use of mundane objects including Accordion and a soft-synth (built CD players, radios, a spray can and especially for the work) complete an electric milk frother could risk the sonic picture. The composer being gimmicky if it weren’t for writes: “Save Yourself forms part their highly performed role within of a series of works that attempt the ensemble. The opening move- to find sonic analogues for ideas ment, for example, sees a transis- and techniques in the visual arts. tor radio latched to a solo cello as The general ‘theme’ of the work though it were some kind of pol- is the establishment of a series of ished orchestral double. monohued “colour fields” that are overwritten with surface figura- With a background in visual arts tions and gestures. The accordion and theatre, the music of Ekrem and melodicas provide the basis of Mülayim often borders on perfor- a cyclical progression of harmonic mance art. Much of his work is con- fields—subtly coloured by gliding cept-driven. Rather than working sine tones from the synth—whilst from within a prescribed medium, winds and strings create aggres- such as the chamber music tradi- sive gestural layers. The contra- tion, the originating idea generates puntal writing gradually decays its own medium from scratch in- into more synchronized figures to- cluding the required sound-sourc- wards the end of the piece, whilst es, to the grammar and notation at the same time “blurring” into a through which it is articulated and development of noise-based tim- sometimes even the very context bres from the very opening.” in which it takes place. The com- 2 poser, by way of example, invented gesting the hiss and pop of an old an entire culture with its own his- gramophone with all its fragility tory, language and scripts, just as a and nostalgia of bygone eras. Like means of arriving at a notional folk other works in Kyriakides output, music. The second of our world this piece reveals his fascination premieres tonight, and we chart as both a carrier and corrupter of the topography of a moment, a message. explores the idea of examining a snapshot of time detached from Many of the works of Danish com- the continuum in which it exists. poser Simon Steen-Andersen The work furthers the DIY instru- play with dynamic and spatial mentation in tonight’s program expectations of sound. His works with a series of chime-like bells are often hyper-amplified and fea- dangling from especially knitted ture close-miking which promotes gloves. In creating the mechanism those minuscule mechanical ar- by which the instrument speaks, tifacts of instrumental technique Mülayim sets up a symbiotic dy- – the subdued breaths, scratches, namic between sound and physical clicks – to the fore. On And Off gesture with the resulting work as And To And Fro begins with a much a choreography as a musi- chamber trio performing an intri- cal work. The composer poetically cate riff and amplified with mega- comments: “Halt a slice out of time phones by three assistant-per- fleeting and gather around it like formers. This detailed soundworld a whisper of moths around light, is simultaneously expanded and fluttering. Layer onto layer, sphere focused by the directionality of the into sphere, cause unto effect, past megaphone’s horn, and timbrally into present, infinity. In the blink of filtered by the decidedly lo-fi cir- an eye a vast infinite geography.” cuitry. Not satisfied with their role as passive assistants to the instru- Yannis Kyriakides’ music fre- mentalists, the three megaphon- quently combines traditional per- ists become increasingly interfer- formance practices with digital ing. At first they act like gates, media. Born in Cyprus, raised in turning on and off and shifting our Britain and resident in The Neth- spatial perception of the sound- erlands, Zeimbekiko 1918, draws world, before eventually screech- inspiration from an old recording of ing into life as dominant perform- a Zeimbekiko dance the composer ers. By the second half of the work, encountered during a youthful the megaphones have transformed look into his own Greek heritage. themselves from a medium, a tool His response, however, is hardly a to deliver a message, into instru- ‘Bartokian’ transcription of antique ments unto themselves: megalo- folk modes, meters and melodies, maniacal contraptions generating but more of an evocation of the their own material in a cadenza of frail recorded medium on which sirens, foghorns and feedback. the music exists. Not long into the opening violin and guitar musings, Notes by Damien Ricketson an electronic layer enters sug- 3 ABOUT THE ARTISTS Zane Banks electric guitar Claire Edwardes percussion Zane Banks is very active in the Percussionist, Claire Edwardes, is contemporary music scene, having a leading interpreter of contempo- recently performed at the Rainy rary classical music and Co-Artistic Days Festival of Contemporary Director of Ensemble Offspring.