Best Live Performances in History

in 2009 I moved into The Rat Palace, a studio in Hobart. Its been the epicentre of so many projects and I have shared the space with some amazing artists of all disciplines. I have hard drives full of jams from this time and will share a few over the next little while as a way of saying farewell to the space. This one is from August this year when myself ( Bass) and old band mates from an outfit called Hexfarm Dane Renshaw (Drums) and Phil Bywater ( Tenor Sax) found ourselves all in the same country for the first time in many years. So we dusted off some musical cobwebs one evening. The photo is of the last Ute load leaving the studio, Intonarumori strapped on the back - not quite sure where the next studio is yet !

Rat Palace Jams - Hexfarm 2022 #1

the first excerpt from a home session

original composition by 
Marco Lucchi : piano and synthesizers
with contributions from 
Henrik Meierkord : cello

luglio 2023

The Meierkord family came by to say hello to us in this month of July. Henrik and I took the opportunity to play something together. Nothing demanding: a sort of 'warm up', which has become a 'session' in my small living room. We mostly used some 'loops' I had on my JamMan, improvising over them, or even more freely. The recordings are quite 'lo-fi', mainly coming from a dictaphone placed in the center of the room, but we believe they are a good testimony of our musical and human entente and of the pleasure of meeting each other in person. See you soon !!

The Living Room [w/ Henrik Meierkord] first excerpt

Hexfarm is

Phil Bywater - Saxophones/Flutes
Dane Renshaw - Drums
Mat Ward - Bass Guitar/Vox

Track 2 from Hexfarm - who meet once a year to jam for a couple of days then head back to their various corners of the world : )

Cost/Benefit Erection - Hexfarm

New Horizons - Concerto for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra (2022)
Dedicated to John Wallace CBE with the hugest gratitude and admiration and warmest affection
Bede Williams (solo Trumpet [Trumpet in C, Piccolo Trumpet & Flugelhorn])
St Andrews Chamber Orchestra
Michael Downes (conductor)
Recording of World Premiere, 12 March 2025, Laidlaw Music Centre, University of St Andrews, Scotland
Recording made by Fife College
Film of complete concert available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uCzykyfmH4&t=7s

I was about to move country, to new horizons, and this work grew out of a shorter earlier work as a result. The short piece I wrote for Alison Balsom and the London Chamber Orchestra in celebration of the LCO’s 100th birthday had much further to go. It does so in this concerto. Cast in a single movement but in an almost symmetrical form of seven sections, complete with a cadenza, the work was composed between England and Italy, as I was travelling backwards and forwards from country to country. It strikes a new path in its style, and is, dare I say it, more ‘open’ in its musical language. I have no doubt that the openness of the Italian people and the landscape I knew I would be moving to had an impact on the music’s overall impression. And, of course, being a trumpeter, I wanted to write a solo concerto that responded to the instrument I know most of all, and reflect many of the works and styles I have worked with as a trumpeter. The soloist plays three different trumpets, a standard trumpet in Bb or C, a piccolo trumpet and flugelhorn, which has the most mellow and beguiling of sonorities. 
This work and this performance are dedicated to John Wallace, who was mentor and guide to Bede Williams and to me, and who has done so much to improve the lives of so many through his immense gifts and incredible generosity of spirit. 
© Paul Max Edlin 2025

New Horizons (2022) - live premiere

A small excerpt from a recent Expanded Cinema project by Dani Kirby ( Keyboards/Voice) and Mat ward (Bass), presented Live at MONA FOMA festival 2021 in Hobart, Tasmania. 
Project Synopsis/Media release....

The Smiling Madame Beudet
Germain Dulac, 1923

Kirby/Ward present the the latest chapter in their ongoing investigation both the history of sound in the era of silent cinema and the pioneering role female artists played (most often overlooked) in the avant garde. They have written and will perform a new score for voice, piano and bass to accompany Germain Dulac’s ground breaking 1923 film The Smiling Madame Beudet.
The Smiling Madame Beudet is credited as the first Feminist movie. The protagonist Madame Beudet is trapped in a suffocating marriage with her only escape being music and the fantasy that she lives in a different world. Her husband is domineering, boorish and frequently pretends to shoot himself (sometimes in front of guests) to taunt and belittle her. Far from portraying Madame Beudet as a victim it casts her as a heroine who, rather than submitting to a life of cruelty, seeks to assert her desires and free herself from the bonds of domestic misogyny.
Dulac uses groundbreaking cinematic artistry to embellish and add detail to both the narrative and the investigation of sexism and gendered roles through techniques such as super-imposition, ultra contrasting of focus, slow-motion, repetition of shots, abstraction and extreme camera angles. These techniques powerfully enforce the Dulac’s desire to show both the oppressiveness of the situation and the absolute need for an imagining of a better life.
The compositional approach focuses on highlighting the sub-text and philosophical underpinnings of the film with emphasis on the meta-narrative behind the protoganist’s story - which is a timeless critique of marriage, gender and sexism. Cinematically this is expressed through Dulac’s focus on Madame Beduet’s internal world as she moves between the disparity of escapism and reality. It is her complex voice and thoughts, as a metaphor for the broader issues of the film that Kirby/Ward bring to life through a dynamic score that incorporates multiple genres ranging from ultra minimalist melody all the way to deafening sub-bass drone.

The Smiling Madame Beudet LIVE Dani Kirby/Mat Ward

I began composing music after reading 'Anti-Oedipus' by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. I do not claim to know whether the book 'caused' the music. And if it did, I do not claim to know why. All I claim to know, is that I was there when it happened. Whether I (or the book) had anything to do with it, is anyone's guess.

Best Live Performances in History

Paul Maurice Roche | Composer