'Effigy' for viola and 8-channel tape by Erkki Veltheim (2021)
Erkki Veltheim, live and pre-recorded viola, Buchla 200 series and Max programming
Commissioned by Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) for SONOROUS III at the Substation, 19-20 November 2021

Effigy

Performed by the Yarn Wire Ensemble (2023): Julia Den Boer (piano); Laura Barger (piano); Russell Greenberg (percussion); Sae Hashimoto (percussion); Tyshawn Sorey (celesta).

"For Ross Gay" is a slowly unfolding sound world composed for myself and the Yarn Wire ensemble, with whom I've had the pleasure of collaborating over the past three years. Beginning with my Autoschediams spontaneous/directed/hybrid composition lexicon (what I call the "ground floor"), we collectively arrived at a musical language that is very specific and applicable to all four performers and their individual setups. Through meticulous rehearsals and workshopping of ideas that I had in mind for this work, I was able to craft something that I felt is in many ways reflective of our intense experiences working together. From there, I created a structural map that invites possibilities of reinterpreting material within precise timecode brackets that contain "fixed" sections that are created in dialogue with the musicians that, for example, indicate which instruments to use and what timbral ideas to explore in what quality or quantity (some of which may be combined with some traditionally notated ideas in the score and apart from the score) as well as "open" sections where a given player may be invited or instructed to perform with or counter to another player with no instrument or timbre specifications at all. -TS

For Ross Gay

THIS AUDIO RECORDING IS ARCHIVAL AND UNPUBLISHED. 

World premiere performed live on August 18, 2022 by Timothy McAllister (alto saxophone) and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra.

Scores - Recordings

For Wadada Leo Smith (Adagio)

Initial recordings of a new duo project by Jim Denley and Matthias Schack-Arnott. These two contributions to Soundcloud, Alloy and Weather were recorded 6th Dec 2017 at Tempe Jets, Sydney. Recorded and mixed by the artists.

Weather

Excerpts from 'Two New Proposals for an Overland Telegraph Line from Port Darwin to Port Augusta, from the Perspective of Alice Springs' for piano and pre-recorded electronics, by Erkki Veltheim (2015) 
Commissioned by Gabriella Smart
Performed by Gabriella Smart, colonial upright piano

Two New Proposals (excerpts)

Last year, I received an email from an artist and protester in the year 2217 with a dire warning of the future. His email is below.

Hello Solomon,
My name is Tsoulumenn Phrancke and I come from the year 2217. This inter-temporal email has been sent at great cost. 
I have an important warning for you about the dire state of your future world and an imperative task for you that will instigate great change in our present. I apologise, some words may be redacted, CADP has strict censorship measures which [REDACTED] organisation has mostly bypassed. This email is cloaked as a collaborative musical email artwork.
Let me first explain the historical context of our present situation.
After the gay agenda-Alt left-Political correctness alliance militia seized
control of the world in 2053 in a devastating coup, society fell under the
control of the Curators for Artistic Development Party (CADP). Since the late 21st century the world has suffered under the brutal
oligarchical rule of CADP. With a fully automated world by the year 2057, the only means of meaningful existence was art, as decreed by the CADP; it was legislated that all people must make art and the presentation or acknowledgement of old art was prohibited. Gradually the great art of the past was purged from the world. 
All new art is systematically destroyed after one year of existence. The possession of contraband art is punishable by death. The CADP’s secret police force, the Militia for the Prevention of Generic, Hackneyed and Pastiche Art is ruthless in its pursuit of contraband material and artistic appropriation. 
The money system was abolished in 2088 and social status was determined by the quality of one’s art as assessed by the CADP curatorial committee. All forms of education except art were prohibited; maths, science and business were systematically written out of the syllabi. 
Our organisation has, at great risk, learnt the utilitarian skills of the past that have been designated to machines. Sport was banned in the 2062; there have been massacres at underground rugby matches where the Militia have brutally murdered players and spectators.
Art is a prison for us, it has no meaning, no use and the brutal taste of the CADP determine the paths of our lives.
Bearing our grievous present in mind, I have an important task for you. We imagine the great artworks of the past and pour over the few remnants of art books that remain hidden. One name that looms large over all others in music is Beethoven. We have [REDACTED] no surviving audio of his works. We see references to the fame of his fifth symphony but we cannot hear it.
We have selected you, Solomon Frank of 2017, as our inter-temporal messenger to bring us Beethoven’s fifth symphony as many times as possible. Find and compile as many recordings of the work (only the first movement, because that’s the famous one)and bury them in a disclosed location.
Let this past celebrity masterwork be a rallying call to overthrow our artistic dictators in 2217. We seek to return to a world of artistic indifference; where the arts are secondary to business, the economy and sport. We seek the sweet release of familiarity in the small amounts of conventional art we do consume. Let art seep to the fringes where it once was letting society function in aimless utilitarianism.
In your time, let this action be an artwork and my message, a dire warning of the inevitable future.
When I say as many recordings as possible, I mean every single performance available; the more versions we have, the more we can instigate artistic longevity, which our society no longer allows for.
Circulate my message to everyone you know and publish it on the internet.
Yours [REDACTED], Tsoulumenn Phrancke
The year 2217

For this interpretation of Phranke’s instructions I have compiled 228 recordings of Beethoven’s fifth symphony movement 1.
Full performers list: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c8ly8d3xpyo2twr/Performers.pdf?dl=0

Beethoven Symphony No. [REDACTED]

Nursalim Yadi Anugerah
Selected Pieces from HNNUNG
C52 (XVIII-IV)

Release date: August 2018
www.hasanaeditions.org

Selected Pieces from HNNUNG

XVIII-IV - Nursalim Yadi Anugerah - Hen To!

Forthcoming on IMM015, a deluxe 5CD box set, out February 2019.

Jonathan Heilbron - contrabass

Recorded at Schlosskapelle Solitude, Stuttgart, May 2018
Mixed at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, August 2018
Mastered by Lachlan Carrick at Moose Mastering, Melbourne, October 2018

IMM015 (disc 1): Anthony Pateras - A Happy Sacrifice (2018) for contrabass & electronics

Fanfare for a City

Performed by Flinders Quartet. Concert footage filmed by 5stream; audio recorded, mixed and mastered by Ana Paula Gargantini, APGMproductions. June 22, 2019. Library at the Dock, Melbourne.

Video of performance can be found here - https://vimeo.com/345175559 

If you're interested in seeing the score, please get in touch.


PROGRAM NOTES

The String Quartet Project is the beginning of a journey that will never be completed. I will continue to add new movements to the piece indefinitely. This suite of music will grow and grow, each movement informing the next. The compositional approach of each movement is informed by the context in which it is written, and the ensemble who performs it: with each string quartet leaving their mark on the work as a whole.


I - The Slow Unfolding of the Self

These are the first marks made for the work. I wanted each note to have gravitas, hence the slow, austere mood. It is almost without pulse and utilises frequent dove-tailing. Harmonically, I've been inspired by the work of the American composer Elliott Carter.

II - Foreign Gravity

The second movement oscillates between soloist and the ensemble in a call and response-like fashion. Instructions to play freely, steady and aggressively are given. It consists of hocket-like sections, all-interval tetrachords and an absence of extended techniques.

The String Quartet Project (I) The Slow Unfolding of the Self [2019]

Credit: 3MBS Fine Music - Melbourne
Sound Engineer: Steve Bullock
Recorded at the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Thursday 5 July 
ANAM, South Melbourne Town Hall
Goldmund Quartet

The String Quartet Project (I) The Slow Unfolding of the Self [2019]

Joseph Franklin