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Watch and Listen to John Cale's Keynote Online
On February 15 underground rock royalty and founding member of the Velvet Underground, John Cale, cut the red ribbon for Modular and Sydney Festival's Circa 1979: Signal to Noise with a Keynote speech at the Seymour Centre.
Hipsters rubbed shoulders with electronic pioneers in a packed out York Theatre as Cale showed off a few snaps and described working with the likes of Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Happy Mondays, The Stooges and LCD Soundsystem before capping things off with a mind blowing rendition of "Heart Break Hotel."
If you missed the speech or want to listen/watch it again, ABC's Big Ideas are streaming it online.
January 28, 2010 at 10:23am in circa 1979: signal to noise
Chinese Gardens
Chamber Music Festival 2010
Musica Viva is pleased to support the Chinese Garden Chamber Music Festival
Following on from the success of the first ever Chinese music festival in Australia in February 2009, the 2010 Chinese Garden Chamber Music Festival will be held:
February 4th to 6th in Sydney’s Chinese Garden of Friendship (Download Brochure)
We are proud to announce that 2010 will feature three of China’s masters of the erhu, pipa and guqin, Xing Lu, Tong Ying and Jin Wei. These extraordinary, virtuosic musicians will join prominent Australian artists in performing Chinese and Australian works, both ancient and modern. You will hear some of the world’s best chamber musicians from both countries in the intimate and magical environment of the Chinese Garden including the Orava String Quartet, Chinese Australian Music Ensemble, cellist Patrick Murphy, percussionists Claire Edwards, Kevin Man and Timothy Constable and The Sydney Chinese Music Ensemble.
There will be six concerts over the three days – three ‘yum cha’ concerts, all beginning at 11.30am, and three evening concerts at 7pm each night. Tickets will also include stimulating pre-talks before evening concerts and an excellent Chinese meal. Wine will be available.
Only 147 tickets are available for each concert and bookings can be made through the Musica Viva box office on 1800 688 482
More information about the festival HERE
John Huie
Artistic Director
"John Huie is an Australian musician and arranger that has spent some considerable time in Hong Kong and China researching various world music styles, including film soundtracks for Golden Harvest and also a commemorative piece for the 1997 handover. Now based in Shanghai, he has put together a crack band of local musicians to recreate many of the 1930’s jazz songs that were the soundtrack to the city in its pre-war heyday. “Shanghai Jazz – Musical Seductions From China’s Age of Decadence” is the sublime result."
"After moving to Shanghai in 2002, he spent three years researching and reproducing the authentic songs and musical style of Shanghai in the 1930s. The albums Shanghai Jazz 1 and Shanghai Jazz 2, were released by EMI. Huie then continued to write for small ensembles using a combination of traditional European and Chinese instruments, which resulted in the release of New Shanghai, also with EMI.During this time he wrote a number of film scores including The White Countess by legendary New York based film duo Merchant Ivory." SOUNDPET
Read the review for last years festival by Peter McGill below
Venue: Chinese Gardens, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Dates: 5, 6, 7, & 8th February, 2009
Producers: Chinese Chamber Music Company | Musica Viva | Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority
February in Sydney is the perfect time to be sitting in the magical setting of the Chinese Gardens, Darling Harbour, and listening to chamber music. This was the inaugural festival which means that we will be treated to this event, hopefully, for many years to come. The music began just before dusk and on a gorgeous summer evening the Chinese Gardens couldn’t have looked more beautiful.
The proceedings began with a ‘Greeting to Country’ and the Festival was opened by the Governor of NSW Professor Marie Bashir AC. The Artistic Director of the Festival was John Z. Huie who is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium High School and has studied under Carl Vine. He lived for 15 years in Hong Kong, from 1991, studying the art of Chinese Chamber music. He was commissioned by the Hong Kong government to compose a piece, which he called “The Honourable Retreat”, for the handover from British rule back to China on 30th June, 1997. In 2002 he moved to Shanghai to research the complexities of that city's authentic songs of the 1930’s, later composing an album Shanghai Jazz, produced by EMI, and for which a tribute concert was held recently to honour his contributions. He has also written film scores, choral works, and produced, composed, and performed in various music ensembles.
Chinese instrumentalists performing with traditional instruments were a delightful highlight to the festival and the opening piece was Fang Yu on the ‘guqin’ which is one of the worlds oldest instruments.
The Shanghai Chinese Music Ensemble played a traditional Chinese folk song “Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye”, (English translation “Night Along The River”) with other traditional instruments and Lulu Liu played a ‘pipa’ solo called “Ospreys Sporting with Water”. In the second half of evening The Chinese Australian Chamber Ensemble with guest artists Professor Wang Zheng Ting (sheng)and Tony Wheeler (zhong ruan) played a traditional Chinese New Year piece. To round out the evening Australian pianist Michael Kierin Harvey performed “Goldfish” by Debussy and “Mephisto Waltz No.1” by Liszt.
Not all the music on offer was instrumental. We were treated to the pentatonic sounds of ‘pingtan’, a traditional Suzhou (Chinese) Opera, which has harmonies in pentatonic scales that align with the ancient instruments of China. Sung in Chinese and a little foreign to the western ear it was accessible because of its use of the pentatonic scale, quite an experience.
The music in this festival is out of the ordinary and the opportunity to experience the worlds’ pre-eminent practitioners playing instruments thousands of years old in their design is exciting and new to Australia. If you missed the Inaugural Chinese Chamber Music Festival put it in your diary for next year. I doubt you will be disappointed.
Peter McGill.
Venue: City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
Date: 22nd January, 2009
Sydney Festival 2009
Bon Iver
Bon Iver are a four piece band, Justin Vernon, Mike Noyce, Sean Carey, Matthew McCaughan, who come from North-western Wisconsin, USA. The force behind the group is singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Justin Vernon who has been making heads turn by producing an album, Emma, forever Ago, with very little technology, a few instruments, and realizing an amazingly unique pastiche of sound. The moniker Bon Iver is an Anglicization and purposeful misspelling of the French greeting bon hiver which means good winter - a greeting he came across while watching Northern Exposure*.
These current songs developed out of the turmoil of the break-up of both Vernon’s long-term relationship and his band DeYarmond Edison(1). He stayed in his fathers' cabin, it was winter, and he was recuperating from liver disease. The songs were only meant to be demos to send to record companies to see if they would produce them but they received such an overwhelmingly agreeable response that Vernon decided to put together a band and start performing them. This was no easy task as the main song For Emma, Forever Ago, according to Vernon, needs a chorus of 80 - 500 people; he gets around this by having the audience sing and therefore the song takes on its' own life unique to the vibe of that room.(2)
The sound created by Bon Iver is unique. Vernon’s’ falsetto, which he uses on most songs and is a recent development in his repertoire, brings an angelic quality to the sound and is balanced out by the deeper harmonies of the three other musicians. Together their vocals are reminiscent of the complexities of country rock greats like the Amazing Rhythm Aces, Charlie Daniels Band and the like. Musically there is a mixture of instruments, guitars, organs, two drum kits, and bass guitar but they are not always used in a traditional manner. Quite often the instruments are used to give a percussive dissonant texture and at times the drum kits are played in opposing rhythms building to a powerful, driving, crescendo. As a sound the devises they use are refreshing and their performance is uncomplicated worth seeking out.
Peter McGill
(*) Northern Exposure at Wikipedia
(1) DeYarmond Edison
(2) Pitchfork Interview
All Tomorrows Parties
Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour
18th & 19th January, 2009.
Sydney Festival 2009
The Sydney Festival 2009 brought an awesome event to east coast Australia by way of ALL TOMORROWS PARTIES (ATP) which is a development in the staging of music festivals. The name itself comes from the Velvet Underground album and song of the same name which was written by Lou Reed. The song was written in response to Reed’s observations of the hangers on in Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour in 1966 of which The Velvet Underground were taking part. (1)
The first of these events was held at Camber Sands, England in 1999 as an alternative to the larger more conventional events on offer. The main ideas were that it would be held in an intimate venue (usually outdoor) and the headline artists, be they musician or occasionally visual, would curate the festival by inviting their favorite performers to perform. In essence it was to be like an insight into the headlining acts own music collection, per se. Another aspect of the event was that originally, being in an intimate outdoor environment, there was an attempt to blur the personal distinctions between artists, producers, and punters. They would all stay in the same accommodation, (2) and they were to be a sponsorship free event.
The headline act and curators for ATP Australia 2009 were Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Australia’s seminal eclectic punk rock outfit and there choice of cohorts was inspiring.
Though it wasn’t possible to see everything on the bill there was plenty to choose from. A diverse mix including electronica - Spiritualized, visual art – Louis Wain, bluesman – James Blood Ulmer, and heavy soul – Afrirampo to name a few.
For the whole line up you can go to the Sydney Festival 2009 homepage. What I can tell you about are the acts I did get to see.
First up was Hoss, a Melbourne hard-rock outfit that pumped up the volume from the start and delivered an abundantly driven rock set, they were powerful and gusty. The Geyer Zone was an instillation in a tunnel which consisted of minimal lighting and a soundtrack that could barely be heard over the bands outside, so for me that was a bit of a lost experience. Michael Gira comes from New York City and was a founding member of the industrial-rock band Swans. In this incarnation he was without a band and performed solo with guitar and vocals. Don’t be fooled by that description though, he’s solo performance consisted of loud and gritty vocals accompanied by distorted gutsy six string brutality. His emotive delivery was well received. Harmonia are a mesh of ex-members of German bands such as Kraftwerk, Neu!, and Cluster. As you can guess their set was resplendent with electronica. They were a welcomed separation to the hard rock on offer. Robert Foster of the Go-Betweens provided an entertaining set with some fine memories of the eighties.
The Saints had not been seen together by Australian audiences since 1977. They rejoined to do a gig celebrating Brisbane’s music in 2008. With the original line-up of Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper, and Ivor Hay, joined on bass by Archie Larizza. They played exactly what the crowd had come to hear, playing ‘(I’m) Stranded’ and other well known favourites.
The band we all came to see, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, gave a blistering performance delivering all the songs they are celebrated for including “All Tomorrows Parties” and “The Weeping Song”. They were all in fine form and brought the festival to a satisfying crescendo.
That wasn’t the end of the night though. Some stayed on to catch the latter performances that went on until 1:00 a.m. including The Reels.
It must be said that this was an event that will go down in the memories of the lucky few who got to experience it. The Sydney Festival 2009 not only pulled off this coup d'état in festival composition but the support arrangements were also first class. The venue, who could beat Cockatoo Island in the middle of Sydney Harbour on one of Sydney’s glorious summer days, the food was way out of the ordinary, the beverages were affordable and of high quality, and there wasn’t a line-up of more than 10 people for any of these necessities as well as the amenities and most of the time there was no line-up. I congratulate Sydney Festival 2009 for achieving such a high standard in celebration – it was an excellent event and a huge success!
Peter McGill.
(1) Wiki:
(2) Wiki:
Sydney Festival 2009
September 22nd 2008 04:19
Tonight and tomorrow night I'm appearing as a Rat (part of the Queen of the Witches Parade) in THE LAZY KINGS the official opening ceremony of the SYDNEY FESTIVAL - it's a free show - we did it last night for a crowd of 30,000 or so - some estimates are 40,000 - so there were lots of people... Here is a photograph of the contraption I walk in.
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