Ambergris
Ambergris is a 30 minute live performance based upon a 3-minute composition commissioned for the exhibition Apologue Isle, shown at Contemporary Art Tasmania in October and November 2024. The performance combined an extrapolated version of the original composition ( built from field recordings) with improvised bass guitar. Big Thanks to Andy Hutson for commissioning my piece and for creating Apologue Isle
 
Live footage of Ambergris - https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1035385453
Apologue Isle Website - https://www.apologueisle.com/

Apologue Isle
An apologue is a moral fable, often using animals or non-human entities as the primary drivers of narrative.  The ‘apple isle’ was a nickname given to lutruwita/Tasmania to highlight the importance of the state’s apple export industry; with the first apple trees being planted by colonist William Bligh in 1788. These trees mark the beginning of industrial agriculture and extractive industry, and their subsequent impacts on the landscape and original inhabitants of lutruwita.   From these converging starting points, Apologue Isle aims to reframe the human perspective and create new stories that propose a world inhabited not by humans battling nature, but a complex, entwined system of objects, beings and space.  After many conceptual iterations, the project eventually began as an invitation. Five writers were asked to create a new story, with two simple requirements: it must refer to the natural world, and at least one character must be non-human. These stories were then transformed into sets, puppets were built, music composed and narration recorded.     The project unfolded like a surrealist exquisite corpse, each person building on the work of the one before, whilst retaining creative control over their own work. This aimed to enhance a sense of trust between collaborators through the giving over of ownership and acceptance of the other’s intent. 
The result is five unique stories, told through an unexpected array of characters, that reflect on what it means to live in our world at this moment in history. And alongside these stories is a burgeoning community of creative individuals, brought together through the shared ideas and ethics of the project.

Apologue Isle - Ambergris (Live Snippet)

jazzXpérience

In Our RAM

Piano Riff with eDRUMS and Bass and solo Theremin w/Kaospad FX

R&N (19)

Naffap Neuteredev

plasma vibrations

liner notes part 1: 
Well laid down an enthralling, fast-paced, sweaty-eyed dancefloor track, calling it an open collab. 
Stonerjazz picked it up, marrying it to his expressive voice and instruments. As the ancient art of 
maieutic (look it up) serendipity (look this one up as well) would have it, Jeff and I had just finished 
an amazing poem which finely expressed what he heard in Well's sound. I can only guess how many 
hours he spent adding this, fine-tuning that, getting the balance right. In the end it sat there, all 
groomed in its weekday suit and asked to go out and play. Yeah, why don't you do that? (That's how 
jo tells the story at least).

 liner notes part 2: 
My good and dear friend Jo Richter and I have been practicing a form of commando Free 
association poetry for a little bit now, Firing multiple replies to each others words across the void, 
rapidly --This Poem is one such project-- Initially done lightning Fast and then refined and modified 
for lyrical Flow and meaning-- To further complicate the process, i with Jo's encouragement used 
these word and some Sounds from my deepmind 6 to answer an open collaboration with music by 
our friend Well aka Hakan Skeneby - (That's what Jeff says).
 
Poem / copyright Jeff Gardiner and jo richter:
 Original tile: Kung Tze in the Subway Car
Oil painting Uno Vallman 1964
 
 in the nick of time
 he gave in to dissent
 for the mute perceptive mime
 manically made him raise his head and unmaimed hand in mine
 praise the unerring rebellion
 in subconsentious unison 
the empty shells of every single silly little thing
 ahh, the knell, the bells, fashioned from our fathers’ coral vaults 
selling out, shelling round, all around in disarray 
vainly making everybody wane and wade into the fray
 with withered, bamboo-watered canes - - - fracking shist
 where our homes are still purported to exist
 while scattered scraps of all things past, scantily, scantily clad, 
protrude and flutter in the wind, strained and restrained by the net 
of pleasant pleas -  and subltleties are colors bright and crude - 
watch the Mad Hatter's stint unwind in minor keys - 
i thought that that  - that hat that sat so squat- was you
 at the academy of sovereignty
 where massive piles of bones and crows
 dominate the dark demeanor of the distant 
tears of laughter, tears of loudly lovin’ laughter, that's exactly what we're after
 + + + 
in the purple land of diffidence
 buying purple brands of pale deliverance 
in the hidden forgotten region, religion
 where forgetting – like neglecting - is an optional behavior
 and of course, everybody's carcass, corpse keeps looking for a savior
 down by the trodden, the unsavoury sovereign shouted 
raw with the rotten game of galactic gallows and thrones 
ah the one and only poet of starvation
 standing in the market of used emotion
 endless isles, end base piles of sadness
 masters mean and dirty and their slaves
 bargain bins of binary longing, belonging, unrequited love
 there’s a sale on betrayal - two for a dollar and three for none
 thought i saw a broken bit of joy that once belonged to me 
Though when i had it, it was absolutely free
 Now they're askin’ fifty, literally  frivolous dollars-
+ + + 
mother of deception of the self
 see me on my knees, subordinate 
to her immaculate calamity
 that has transactional realities cooperate
 under towers dark with blinded blinds 
of my infantile infinity-
i asked my shadow: would she follow me 
like a puppy with a crush, herself a pet invertebrate,
 to inclinations more persian, more parisian than her will or mine 
where i might find a package deal on Love 
on the moon, it read in slowly moving neon letters - 
shadows neither show nor speak concerning prinal matters!
 no, said I, shadows squall and squeal and squeak
 drinking gin on the rocks is not that bad at all
 since it became impossible to find an Avacado
 or my favorite alcohol
 just don't answer when she fails to call--

Hakan’s shuffle – nitro club mix – stonerjazz , sonic structures and silent stretches with well

No Signal

"Begegnung mit der Sonne"

Understanding the Protocol

Seen G4

Music and things that might sound like music by Mat Ward. Noise Art/A  Piano and Bass Duet with Dani Kirby/A 50 plus member Art Ensemble called Then She Reaches The Gun/Deep Research Into Luigi Russolo and his Intonarumori .. thats just the stuff I post regularly : ) Thanks to everyone thats ever stopped by. Music is The Best!

Apologue Isle - Ambergris (Live Snippet)

No Mates Ensemble