Vents and Tonebird (Live at 21 Shepherd)

In the radical 1970s the rhetoric around improvisation was exemplified by statements like this from Sydney composer David Ahern:

Forging a new musical language, a meta-form from traditional instruments, everyday objects, environments, complex electronics and associated amplificatory devices… The whole situation is ‘up in the air’, hovering to come to rest in a new synthesis—an environmental metasound.1

Tonebird (Melanie Herbert and Romy Caen) and Vents (Peter Farrar, Dale Gorfinkel and Jim Denley) achieve their environmental metasounds, not through a rejection, or negativity, but through affirmation—an embrace of sonic and structural extremes.

Way back in 2015 working on a directed improvisation with the Berlin-based percussionist Burkhard Beins, Burkhard asked Melanie to play a high D on her violin. Despite having a degree in composition from Sydney University, and being a piano teacher, Melanie had no idea what that instruction meant to her violin-ing—she doesn’t think in terms of fixed and defined tones. Likewise, Romy’s dysfunctional harmonium and home-made synth just don’t fit within systematic conventions. Theirs’ is a new use of frequencies, stripped of clichés, forging new relations and patterns—up in the air, flying free.

Dale’s invention, his ‘air drum,’ works in a nuanced way with frequencies low enough to be beyond the horizon of music theories. Peter performs with dry microporous ceramic Tiles and Stones immersed in Tubs of Water, where hydrophones amplify an extraordinary plenitude of polyphonic musicality where micro-dissipative structures—billowing Bubbles—birth clicks, whistles, wheezes, cries, tone-ings, long glissandi, and polyrhythmic sequences. Jim cuts the air with his flutes revealing the magical realm of transforming, tone-ing breath.

Tonebird and Vents at 21 Shepherd will reveal two groups taking seriously Ahern’s prompt to forge new musical languages—environmental metasounds.

This will be the launch of:
– Tonebird CD – In a room by the river – Splitrec 34
– Vents CD – Vents (relative pitch) https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/vents

Tonebird
Melanie Herbert – violin
Romy Caen – harmonium, synth

Vents
Peter Farrar – submerged tiles
Dale Gorfinkel – air drum
Jim Denley – flutes

Doors: 6:30pm
Vents: 7:00pm
Tonebird: 8:15pm

Tickets: $25/$15