new music and activism

I wrote a short rant for resonate magazine last week about new music and activism. You can read it here.

embarrassing story

So a slightly embarrassing story...

Having decided to stop work for a coffee break the other day, I wandered away from my computer into the kitchen. Before going I hit the play button to stream one of Julian Day's interviews on New Music Uplate. As I stood listening to my little espresso maker work its magic, my house began literally shaking with the vibrations of an incessant clatter. It sounded like a record player skipping over and over the same scratch on a record. Or as though a train was bombarding my living room. I'd left my computer plugged into my speakers and they were really really loud!

Assuming something was wrong with the streaming at Julian's end, I emailed him the next day and moaned that it wasn't working - the interview was freezing. He replied with a puzzled email: he'd just been listening to it himself. Weird. I sent him an email laughing about how embarrassing it would be if it turned out to actually be a piece of music... I tried again today. And guess what? It was! Eek... I'm never going to live this one down!

But I swear at the decibels that I heard the opening of this piece, even Anthony Pateras himself (it was one of his prepared piano works) wouldn't have recognised it! I am humbly ashamed...
but amused all the same.

Anyway, Pateras's stuff is fascinating - prepared piano and explorations into tempo and rhythm. He marks Ligeti as a huge influence. Check out the interview here. JD also talks to David Chisholm about his recent show: the beginning and end of the snow...

psycho-acoustic experiences

I'm certainly going to have to start travelling again soon...

http://www.newmusicbox.org/chatter/chatter.nmbx?id=5201

the problem of silence

...and speaking of Morton Feldman... I came across this interesting article yesterday about the colonization of silence....

clipped wings

This little hummingbird's wing are clipped this weekend - I'm house bound. As a result of a painful skiing stack last weekend, I currently have an oddly shaped left foot and a potentially torn ligament. Grrr! I have crutches, but the novelty wore off as soon as I crossed the living room floor! They're exhausting.

I'm determined to make the most of the weekend though! I'm currently surrounded by a pile of tattered and torn second hand books, an assortment of CDs, paints, a bunch of blank canvasses and masses of tasty fair trade coffee - yum! An indulgence in creativity! Who needs to be able to walk ? Ha - I scoff at you two-legged freaks wandering about, walking your dogs, bopping away at the pub, playing frisbee, and climbing mountains...

...anyway...

So what am I listening to? What's in my pile of random music? A mix of favourites and things I've been meaning to sit down and listen to in a while...

Duo Vertigo - Vertigo One
Milica ilic - Stir the Sky
Morton Feldman - Piano and String Quartet/ Aki Takahashi + Kronos Quartet
Liza Lim - The Heart's Ear
Bjork - Medulla
Bjork - Volta
Uncle Ho - Circus Maximus
Kid Confucius - Stripes
Håkon Thelin - A P)Reference To Other Things
Kappa - trio altraove 1.3
Philip Glass - The Essential Philip Glass
Ros Bandt - Stacks
Messiaen - Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Couraud)
Varese - Arcana/Ameriques/ionization (Boulez)

resonate - it's up!

Well it's been a long challenging journey, but resonate - the AMC's new web magazine is now launched! Hoorah! It's got the lot - interviews, features, group blog, journal, calendar, concert reviews...I'm really excited about working as editor - lots of ideas to explore...

You can check it out at: http://www.resonatemagazine.com.au

Don't forget to check out the inaugural issue of the resonate journal, which I co-edited with Rhiannon Cook...