Out 2

It's SoundOut day 2 and I got to the evening session. Both days have been evening sessions for me. I arrived as Brigit, Millie, Pierre-Yves and Richard were about to play. The nature of this event is a mix of people who play together regularly and interactions with new others. It makes it interesting for all and is the essence of the collective nature of the event. Then into Superimpose featuring Berliners Christian and Mattias, drums and trombone. This is energy and noise with some tones and considerable chops. I was particularly impressed by Matthias with his rapid flap tonguing which served a real rhythmic purpose and Christian is clearly sharp on stick techniques. But it was my house-guests who opened new doors for me in this contemporary experimental music: Hannah on flute and Brodie on trombone. They played noise, slapped keys and dismantled instruments and smacking sounds at various times but they were virtuosic in tonal and atonal note play and it made up, perhaps, most of their performances: beautiful tones; unexpected intervals; suggestions of melody and rhythms; intriguing harmonies, implied or otherwise, tonal or otherwise. It's an area where I feel more comfortable. Hannah's appearance was firstly with piccolo playing a rapidly moving birdsong. Brodie took a busily firm control with virtuosic noteplay against Marlene's sympathetic and glorious bass clarinet tones before playing with noises and a CD mute and a return to tones. I mentioned this to Hannah and her comment: that's how we were trained. I guess others have similar training. Certainly Marlene who played bass clarinet with Brodie had a similar approach and perhaps Laura and Millie. There were times Jim played this way, too, and Pierre-Yves. I heard snippets from Clayton the day before. Tonality/atonality is powerful amongst the noise plays. It expands and beautifies, at least to my ears. I felt it in Lenny's drumming too: not tonality but relatively some standard rhythmic concepts. Then ongoing to Jim inviting Millie, Matthias and Birgit to his solo spot. I was amused to watch their discussions beforehand and the synchronising of watches. They were to pass back and forth, Jim to others, every 60sec. Then Brodie and Marlene leading into the final Collective improv. The final group improv is always a feature as this one was. Richard was particularly pleased. Then the pack ups and partying that is essential to such an event. SO2019 was another challenge for the ears but also a diversion into C20th atonality and the mix was great. It's not often we get such a gathering of experimentals in Canberra. Hopefully Richard will manage to revisit it as an 11th anniversary next year for this one was a great success.

SoundOut 2019 final day 2 was at the Drill Hall Gallery. Performers at the evening session were Superimpose featuring Christien Marien (drums) and Matthias Muller (trombone); Birgit Uhler (trumpet), Millie Watson (piano), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba), Richard Johnson (wind), Hannah Reardon-Smith (flute), Laura Altman (clarinet), Lenny Preston (drums), Rhys Butler (alto), Jim Denley (flute) with others, Brodie McAlister (trombone) and Marlene Radice (bass clarinet) and the SoundOut Collective.

Out 1

SoundOut is in town for its 10th anniversary at the Drill Hall Gallery and I got to most of the evening session on Day 1. It's an international collaboration, as much a seminar or symposium as a concert event. There are as many musicians as performers. The performers are immensely serious yet lighthearted and the gathering itself is of great value to them. The music is new, experimental, open and unchained by techniques and yet, strangely, mostly played on standard instruments, although often with non-standard effects. I'm not sure why they use standard instruments for such non standard techniques but mostly they do, for their skills and sounds are with various noises and effects that aren't in the standard repertoire of the instrument. So flutes are dismantled and blown various ways and amusingly, I thought, a viola da gamba played a bow rather than the other way around. There are long drones and harmonics aplenty. Certainly some players don't know standard techniques (I was stunned by a pianist at a previous SO saying she didn't know of scales and chords and yet I'd enjoyed her set but I'm assured most do, and for several performers I know of, that's certainly true. We are hosting two players this year (hello Hannah and Brodie) from classical and jazz streams and they are both trained and working professionals. I'm somewhat less adventurous and like it when a few notes settle as melodies to appear amongst the drones (this day, Clayton on bass in the Astronomical Unit set and Jim Denley in another set). Maybe they consider that a copout but each was quite beautiful amongst the slower meditations and occasional sharpness. Brodie and Matthias, too, in the night-ending collective set did something approximating a horn section when they went to facing corners behind the audience and played trombone harmonies, some tonal, some otherwise. I just came in on the last notes of Col, Millie and Monika so got a pic and little else. As a set, I particularly enjoyed Astronomical Unit (great name!), a trio of trom/bass/drums played alternatively, squeaks and squeals on skins, punctuated trom and the bass just later including that lovely melodic section up high, delightfully soft and melding. Birgit played a piece that recounted chemical pollution in the Chicago river with duration linked to concentrations of various pollutants. Clayton did a solo bass thing, partly seated, partly standing, with two bows (German) and a few sticks and a slidy end pin. Jim, Melanie and Pierre-Yves did various things, dismantling a flute, blowing mini harmonicas, playing a bow with a viola da gamba, blowing tuning pipes, lots of harmonics and bowed high notes. The end-night collective was numerous and spread widely. Much listening in big numbers and perhaps fewer departures for it, although the troms did physically depart to reappear down the back. It's a time for meditation and for deep listening and for considerable technical rule-breaking. Certainly it's fresh and intriguing sounds that value closed eyes and open ears.

SoundOut 2019 runs for two days at the Drill Hall Gallery. I heard sessions from Astronomical Unit featuring Christien Marien (drums), Matthias Muller (trombone), Clayton Thomas (bass), Birgit Uhler (trumpet) solo, Clayton Thomas (bass) solo, a trio of Jim Denley (flute), Melanie Herbert (violin) and Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba), and the SoundOut Collective. Staying with me are the very convivial Hannah Reardon-Smith (flute) and Brodie McAlister (trombone).