Kumi Kato's exquisite bell tree walk at Dogwood Creek

Sounding the Condamine is a site-specific performance piece and an on-line installation paying tribute to the Condamine bell that sounded the Queensland landscape in the late 19th century. Drawing on folk songs (On the Banks of the Condamine), bush poetry (in particular Condamine Jack), the sound of the bells (which locals say can be heard up to 20 miles away on a cold still night) and the environmental sounds of Murilla shire, a

performance piece involving music, livestock, installation and movement will be carved into the landscape. Footage from the performance will become part of a digital archive which will also incorporate interviews, historical information, sounds and images presented as an on-line installation work.

Erik's Griswold's piece Trombones in Tinnies performed on the Dogwood Creek

Sharka Bosakova ignities her Czech heritage

Singing Steve Newcomb's arrangment of Time (by Condamine Jack)

The 3 Amigo's join Clocked Out for the final part of SOunding the Condamine

Performing his composition Flutes of the Forrest

Jan Baker-Finch at Dogwood Creek

Site specific collaboration with installation artist Cath Clover for Double Venturi_The Current, Melbourne Town Hall 2006.

The site was the lift shaft and stairwell of the Melbourne Town Hall, the centre of civic power for the City of Melbourne, Australia. It was chosen for its transitional and apparently peripheral nature. Little time is spent here yet it is a vital link within the building and is constantly in use. Using composed music played live in the lifts, a projection of visual sampling, and a pre-recorded sound piece the work engages with ideas surrounding transition, change, and flux.

With thanks to musicians Martin MacKerras [clarinet], Adrian Sherriff [bass trombone], Eugene Ughetti [percussion]; lift operators Gemma Collette and Alana Gibson; assistants Utako Shindo, Holly Ingleton, Johnny Pavlatos; and sound recording contributions from Kirsten Reese and Sean O’Neill

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/music/bangs-without-boundaries-provide-sounds-that-resonate-for-besteffect/2009/06/15/1244917981817.html

- performing with Richard Haynes and conducting Ba Da Boom, April 2009, Queensland Conservatorium.
http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/ba-da-boom-percussion-with-richard-haynes

- performing with Gabriella Smart’s Soundstreams, OzAsia Festival, 2007

http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/ecstatic-dances-soundstream-and-oz-asia-festiva

-performing with Gabriella Smart’s Soundstreams, OzAsia Festival, 2008
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue82/8762

- improvising, Make it up Club, 2002
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue48/6386

- at See, Hear, Now Festival Townsville
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue81/8736

- with Clocked Out Duo –Foreign Objects 2008

http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/clocked-out-duo-dedications

- with Clocked Out Duo at MIBEM, Iwaki Studio, MElbourne February 2008 (curated by Anthony Pateras and Robin Fox)
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue85/9056

- with Clocked Out Duo, Terry Riley and Topology, The Brisbane Powerhouse 2007.
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue73/8136

- with Clocked Out – Sounding Wivenhoe, The Brisbane Powerhouse 2007.

http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue80/8665

- curating Clocked Out – A Message from Sirius, The Brisbane Powerhouse 2009.

http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue91/9489

- composes and performs in Clocked Out - The Wide Alley, Queensland Music Festival 2007. Co-composed with Griswold and Zou Xiangping.
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue90/9442_

- curated and performed in Clocked Out - All Vinko: The Theatre of Music
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue85/9060

- performed/composed - Bridge Song with Bonemap and Clocked Out Duo
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue56/7136

The Wide Alley is the product of an in-depth exploration of Sichuan street music, Chinese Opera percussion and other traditional styles set in the context of sweeping modernisation and globalisation. Griswold and Tomlinson’s work in Chengdu has introduced Chinese audiences to innovative contemporary music, improvisation, and new media, while their performances in Australia have introduced audiences to traditional Chinese styles, instruments, and ideas. Jinqian Ban master Zou Zhongxin credits their collaboration with him for bringing about an increased awareness of his artform – he was recently named a Chinese national cultural treasure.

Rosemary Sorenson of The Australian described The Wide Alley as “an experiment in inclusion” in her feature article of July 2007. Scott Spark of ABC Online wrote “while these compositions owe a great deal to Sichuan Opera and regional folk music traditions, they’re not strictly representations of particular styles of Chinese music. They’re a lot freer than that. There are moments when the music resembles jazz more than anything else. The course of the performance, which lasts for about 80 minutes, is an incredible pastiche of genres, and the breadth of dynamics is astonishing. The variety certainly works to the performance’s advantage – evoking the sense of narrative, introducing us to the sounds, sights and characters of Chengdu…”

“The Wide Alley includes music from the Sichuan Opera tradition, especially the Chuanju Iuogu (Opera Percussion), folk music traditions, high pitched singing style, Western classical music, experimental music, jazz, free improvisation, Chinese classical traditions, story-telling. In fact, the list is so long that the concert cannot be about these different styles as they receive only fleeting reference. Instead it is about a meeting place, a street, where musicians come to play together, express their history, their ideas, and possibly even leave a little of their sound world behind. In our experience living in China a day begins with a plan, and ends up having followed a completely different path. Much of the music in this show does that too. A traditional erhu solo turns into a child’s music box, morphs into jazz erhu which breaks out into an Opera inspired groove – really! Is the music Chinese, Australian, Western? Is that the right question to ask? Or is it a meeting in time, a conversation of roots, and perhaps a chance to share thousands of years of history in a context where people might listen?” (excerpt from Directors Notes, Queensland Music Festival Production, Wide Alley)

December 3rd, Cinnabar Heart by Chinary Ung at Banff Centre

Wednesday Medlies

December 1st, In the shadow of Sleeping Buffalo (Music for the Banal - Banff), a new work for found objects by Vanessa Tomlinson. Banff Centre

Curated by Joel Sachs

November 24th, Banff Centre, Featuring VT in Frozen Horizon by Karen Tanaka

PASIC

November 11 - 14th, Indianapolis
7.30pm concert, featuring Suzie Ibarra, Julie Spencer and Vanessa Tomlinson (performing Spill http://www.youtube.com/user/theclockedout#p/search/1/-DV84tN-Yvc)