Review of Soak / The Hollow Air
Phil Slater Describes The Hollow Air
The Hollow Air is 40mins. duration and involves a collaboration between members of the Australian Art Orchestra, New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Richard Nunns, and sound designer/composer/improviser Greg White. The work focuses upon the various tonal and timbral nuances of the respective instruments and incorporates sound projection and real time digital manipulation using MAX/MSP. The performers work from pre-composed material in a very flexible (cellular) way and also improvise within both pre-established and spontaneously created parameters such as those generated by “conduction” techniques.
The primary focus of the work is to both establish a sonic context for the improvisations by Mr. Nunns upon traditional musical and ceremonial instruments of Maori culture, and to also create an interactive method for the artists to explore. Mr. Nunns is an established and acclaimed ethnographer and practitioner of over twenty traditional instruments unique to Maori culture, and is internationally respected for his performance practice and collaborations. The instrumentalist from the AAO are of a world class standard in terms of their musical abilities and their dedication to engage in new performance techniques, collaborations and musical styles.
This area of collaborative work (between artists of differing genres/cultures /disciplines) is an interesting area for me, and I firmly believe this way of music making is something for which the Australian Art Orchestra has a particular talent. The varied talents of each of the members, with a primary focus upon types of improvisation, make it an extremely fluid and flexible ensemble to work with. Combining this improvisational aesthetic with realtime manipulation techniques afford by the MAX/MASP software offers the ensemble a unique opportunity to enlarge its creative music making palette.
The work has several components, including musical score, conduction “signing language”, MAX/MSP patches installed on several laptop workstations for the performers, and sound spatialisation software patches programmed and performed by Greg White.
The key collaborative artists engage in several workshop-rehearsal situations and develop the necessary musical vocabulary requirements of the piece. These include familiarisation with MAX/MSP possibilities, conduction techniques, and the various aesthetic issues arising from collaborating with Mr. Nunns and Mr. White. There will be several MAX/MSP workstations (ie. a laptop, mixing desks, etc), which will require some exploration and familiarisation by the performers.
Several of the instrumentalists utilize contact and/or close microphone techniques (both for amplification and sound file gathering). The performers are also asked to undertake many extended techniques upon their respective instruments.
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