soundcapsule #4

july 17: ida duelund hansen - chamber made opera; kraig grady - clocks & clouds; david burraston - the wired lab

Soundcapsule is a bi-monthly online feature offering free downloads of music by artists we've recently covered in RealTime.

All tracks are copyright the artists.

ida duelund hansen, another lament, chamber made opera/rawcus

Mike McEvoy, Ida Duelund Hansen, Another Lament photo Paul Dunn

Another Lament is a salon opera commissioned as part of Chamber Made's Living Room series which presents performances in private residences, though it has since been performed at Melbourne's Malthouse. Co-created with Rawcus, an ensemble for performers with and without disabilities, Another Lament is directed by Kate Sulan and composed by Danish cellist/vocalist Ida Dueland Hansen who also performs in the work. The piece is loosely based on the tragic demise of 17th century British composer Henry Purcell.

In a review in RT101 Matthew Lorenzon wrote: "[Duelund Hansen] utilises a vast stylistic spectrum from baroque to jazz harmonies and mid-20th century Central European atonality, to extended vocal and double bass techniques. Her reinterpretations of Purcell demonstrate an expressive continuum in harmonic and timbral composition from unnerving baroque contrapuntal dissonance to the sickly crackle of cotton thread over a double bass string."

TRACK: O Let Me Weep (6.2M)
From Another Lament (2012)
composer & performer Ida Duelund Hansen
sound design Jethro Woodward
© the artist
http://idaduelundhansen.com/
http://www.chambermadeopera.com/

related articles

bringing chamber opera home
matthew lorenzon: chamber made opera, living room opera
RealTime issue #101 Feb-March 2011 p48

unravelled and re-woven
matthew lorenzon: minotaur the island, aurora festival
RealTime issue #109 June-July 2012 web

room to imagine
simon charles: chamber made opera, the box
RealTime issue #109 June-July 2012 pg. 34

from the living room into the world
keith gallasch: david young, chamber made opera
RealTime issue #108 April-May 2012 p36

kraig grady, clocks and clouds

Meru bars, Clocks and Clouds photo Gail Priest

Kraig Grady is a US-born composer currently based in Wollongong, NSW. He performs with Terumi Narushima as Clocks and Clouds. Heavily influenced by Harry Partch, Grady has an ongoing interest in microtonal tunings, building his own instruments in order to perform his compositions. In fact Grady has created an entire meta-world to encapsulate his compositional thinking, Anaphora Island.

A particularly striking instrument is the Meru Bars described by Gail Priest in a recent review of Clocks and Clouds at Aurora 2012 as "PVC conduit of different lengths, placed vertically and topped with thick metal bars suspended on elastic. The objects are equally musical and sculptural and, at a distance, their faux marble paintwork makes them reminiscent of ancient objects of ritual."

Reviewing the same concert Oliver Downes writes: "The sound of the Meru seemed to emanate from deep within the earth, its blended resonances suggesting imaginary ceremonies unfolding in forgotten caves. When this opening 'terrain' section closed with the exit of the Meru from the texture, the remaining instruments seemed bereft without its subterranean heat."

TRACK: Meru from the Stolen Stars (17.4M)
composer & performer Kraig Grady
© the artist
http://www.anaphoria.com/

related articles

a moving song for the earth
oliver downes: clocks and clouds, aurora festival of living music
RealTime issue #109 June-July 2012 web

alternate hearings
gail priest: clocks & clouds, greg schiemer, aurora festival
RealTime issue #109 June-July 2012 web

an aurora over western sydney
keith gallasch: andrew batt-rawden, artistic director, aurora festival of living music
RealTime issue #108 April-May 2012 p14

david burraston, the wired lab

The WIRED Lab courtesy the artists

The WIRED Lab was established in 2007 as an artist collective comprising Sarah Last, David Burraston, Alan Lamb and Robin Fox. It is situated on a rural property in Cootamundra in the Riverina district around 400 kms south west of Sydney. The collective’s overall intention is rooted in broader investigations into connections between art, science and environment, however the initial project for the group was to further explore the long wire techniques developed by Alan Lamb over the last 30 years.

David Burraston lives on the property and is conducting ongoing research. This track is from the Rainwire project which "forms part of an art/science initiative to investigate environmental sonification of land based natural rainfall using large-scale long wire instruments" (academic paper Charles Sturt University).

TRACK: Rainwire (excerpt 16/2/2011, Sputnikwire) (7.2M)
David Burraston, The WIRED Lab
© the artist
http://wiredlab.org

related articles

WIRED Open Day, 2009
gail priest, earbash LP review
e-dition july 17, 2012

listening to landscape & community
shannon o’neill: wired open day 2011, muttama, nsw
RealTime issue #105 Oct-Nov 2011 web

railroad transformations
RealTime issue #101 Feb-March 2011 p53
bruce mowson, rolling stock, junee

taking the s-train
jim knox on an unsound trip out of wagga wagga
RealTime issue #76 Dec-Jan 2006 p48

installations out of Wagga
bruce mowson, unsound 04
RealTime issue #64 Dec-Jan 2004 pg. 10

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