Growing seeds

There was a welcome to country but I missed that.  I was there to record and I was setting up and anyway I wasn't sure recording was appropriate.  But then the first concert of the CIMF program, called Seeds of life and located at the Arboretum.  This was one larger then a string of shorter snippets around the Arboretum space.  Oliver Shermacher started with a daring mixed media concert at the Margaret Whitlam pavilion (BTW my first visit to a small space but with a massive view).  He' s a daring player, perhaps especially as a clarinettist, but then I don't know too many others.  Jurg Wyttenbach Una chica in Nirvana was a mix of clarinet and spoken story, all whispey and strong as fitting.  Impressive and daring.  Then Alice Chance Stargazer which had us all playing recorded synth sounds from our mobiles (various, depending on starsign) and Oliver improvising quietly against this.  Then Nicola Resanovic  alt.music.ballistix with a samples-rich background in four parts and OS again improvising over.  This was fascinating, as were all.  OS is Australian born but educated and living between Australia and Germany, so not surprised by his experimental while virtuosic concert.  Those Germans are certainly both those things.  Then a series of snippets of performers in the open in gardens: Miro sitting on a rock playing an improv on a magpie song he'd just heard, then Stella; siblings Flora and Theo Carbo playing something more electric and forceful, I guess a free improv; John Mackey playing immense open improvs, interestingly firstly on Stella then Body and soul; finally the Djinama Yilaga choir comprising ~6 women with a girl and boy and a woman guitarist and led by Cheryl Davison singing songs from their country (south coast NSW).  Interestingly they are revitalising their dhurga language and a little amusing when place names we recognise, like Narooma and Tilba, pop up.  Then a final performance by the Australian Dance Party but I couldn't effectively record it and had to leave anyway.  Ashlee Bye, Yolanda Lowatta and Patricia Hayes-Cavanagh dancing in the vast space of the amphitheatre to choreography by Ashlee Bye and music by Dan Walker.  Really a fascinating outing.

Seeds of life was the opening concert of CAMF2023 at the Arboretum.  In verious formats, it included performers Oliver Shermacher (clarinet), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet), Theo Carbo (electric guitar), Flora Carbo (saxophone), John Mackey (tenor), Djinama Yilaga (choir) and the Australian Dance Party with Ashlee Bye (choreographer, dancer) and Yolanda Lowatta and Patricia Hayes-Cavanagh (dancers).