Program
- John Cage: Radio Music (1957) for 1 – 8 radio’s.
- Lindsay Vickery: Hunting Pack (2011) for electronic keyboard, cello, cimbalom and electronics [world premiere].
- Stuart James: Particle 1 (2011) for 2 ruined cymbals, laptop, 2 microphones, and 4 loudspeakers.
- Ross Bolleter: Deviance (2011) for ruined piano, cello, flute, bass clarinet and playback [world premiere].
- Chris De Groot: Agerasia (2011) for three ruined records, cello and bass clarinet [world premiere].
- Cat Hope: Kuklinski’s Dream (2010) for three carving knives, viola, bass clarinet and cello [Perth premiere].
- Thomas Meadowcroft: Pretty Lightweight (2001) [Perth premiere]. for cello, viola, flute and playback.
- Scott Walker: Clara (Benito’s Dream) (2006) arranged by Decibel for bass clarinet, ruined piano, meat punching, bass guitar, guitar, sampler, 2 drum sets and string trio.
This was the second of three concerts at PICA in 2011.
Part of experimentation in recent music composition has been with the very nature of instruments themselves, and once extended techniques reached the maximum effect possible, and the influence of art movements such as fluxus and dada reached music, composers began to use objects not usually associated with music creation to enable different sound worlds for music. Pretty Things features a selection of music with an emphasis on Western Australian works that make use of unusual items as musical instruments, instruments that have been altered by time or other interference, or instruments that may be thought of as ‘pretty things’ in their own right. It is notable how composers have responded to the ‘pretty things’ brief with ruin as an illustration of beauty and musical potential.
Special Guests
Cimbalom, extra percussion: Josh Webster
Meat punching: Mace Francis
Ruined piano in Clara: Chris De Groot
Viola/violin: Aaron Wyatt, Bec Smith
