Soak / The Hollow Air
9th October, Melbourne International Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre
Image: Tobias Titz
Composer, Soak Alister Spence
Curator, The Hollow Air Phillip Slater
Collaborators 2010 Louise Curham (film artist), Riley Lee (shakuhachi) and Greg White (sound designer, composer and improviser)
Past Collaborators: Richard Nunns
Program Notes
Soak is a live music and film experience. An extended ambient work, it slowly unfolds through compositional elements influenced by artists such as Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki, Brian Eno, Radiohead, Dust Brothers and Miles Davis. Soak, composed by Alister Spence, reveals the Australian Art Orchestra as a fluid organism that is constantly evolving through a many-layered palette of sound. Add to this a visual component manipulated by film artist Louise Curham in real time using multiple projectors and screens, and you have an aural and visual exploration of sound that breaks down distinctions between musical genres and incorporates elements of ambient music, electronica, contemporary art music, jazz and rock.
The Australian premiere of The Hollow Air features a collaboration curated by Philip Slater between members of the Australian Art Orchestra and shakuhachi player Riley Lee. The work focuses on the various tonal and timbral nuances of the respective instruments and incorporates sound projection and real time digital manipulation using the visual programming language MAX/MSP.
Watch an excerpt of The Hollow Air
Tour History
2007 – Auckland Town Hall, Auckland Festival
Performance Artists
Alister Spence Piano, laptop
Phillip Slater Trumpet, Laptop
Louise Curham Film Artist
Greg White Laptop
Press for Soak / The Hollow Air
