fantastic, fantastic.  I shall etch this recording into a pure gold disk and send it to orbit the Moon.

Dawn 'til Dusk in Kosciuszko is inspired by one of my favourite places in the world - The Snowy Mountains. A few years ago in autumn, I walked up to a place called Porcupine Rocks to watch the sunrise. As I sat on that cliff top at dawn, overlooking the Thredbo valley, a pink hue on the horizon surrounded me. All was still. All was quiet... Then, in a moment of breath, the sun’s rays hit the rock; dazzling sunlight races across the landscape. The day has begun. Frogs and insects wake, calling their song to the morning; birds soar across the ranges, arcing gracefully through the wide sky; skinks creep cautiously onto the stony granite to warm their leathery bodies, while the last of summer’s alpine daisies reach for the warming daylight. As clear skies are broken, the day darkens. In the mountains, the weather changes rapidly. The alps, once glazed in sunlight become stark. Shifting clouds cast their shadows across the terrain. The chill of winter beckons as the temperature drops. A day in the mountains is full of beauty, movement, drama and vast skies. As the sun sets, the day comes to a close. The pink and orange hues of dawn return to the horizon. A cycle is complete. The animals ready themselves for night. The day is done.
Dawn 'til Dusk in Kosciuszko is my impression of an autumn day in the Snowy Mountains. As you listen, I hope you are transported and can sense both the intimacy and the vastness, the beauty and the magnitude, of this special place in Australia.
This piece was written for the Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers’ Program and premiered by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Carlo Antonioli at the program’s showcase on 28th January 2023.

Dawn 'til Dusk In Kosciuszko

Corymorpha is a genus of hydrozoans that resemble flowers. They typically feature a central stalk topped by a hydranth with tentacles and a mouth. Some species of corymorpha thrive in deep water and live in colonies, forming ‘abyssal flower meadows’. 

This track samples heart-filling commentary from a Nautilus Live reel (https://www.instagram.com/nautiluslive/). That said, it didn’t start as an ode to corymorpha; rather, a friend’s reaction to its early sound design sent it down an ocean current, and here we are 🦀🪼!

In the spirit of getting stuff out there and not have it exist solely on my desktop for eternity, here is the deep-sea flower for your streaming pleasure. At some point I intend to get help with the mix and release it properly. Until then, if you’d like the WAV just ask, and thanks for listening.

Image from the Norwegian Species Data Bank (https://artsdatabanken.no/)

Corymorpha

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]

Moments from Orderly Mouthpiece Spent - a radiophonic work made for BBC Radio 3

https://www.arcoarcoarco.com/orderly-mouthpiece-spent

Orderly Mouthpiece Spent
A specially commissioned programme to immediately follow the live broadcast of The Last Night of the Proms, 2018, BBC Radio 3.

Devised, written and edited by Neil Luck in collaboration with a host of artists from ARCO, squib-box and beyond.

Produced by Philip Tagney
Presented by Tom Service

Handed the keys to BBC Radio 3 directly after The Last night of the Proms, this programme sutures together a dirtied reflection of that festival, filtered through a psycho-melo-drama for presenter around the decline of traditional, virtuosity, and the human intellect.

The show features all original material by Neil Luck and collaborators:

Fiona Bevan, Adam de la Cour, Kit Downes, Tom Jackson, Dominic Lash, Matthew Lee Knowles, Lore Lixenberg, Musarc, Hatsune Miku, Lynette Quek, Federico Reuben, and Max Wainwright.

​The programme was recorded largely in Maida Vale, and Broadcast on the 8th of September 2018, as a special edition of the Hear & Now programme - Radio 3's flagship contemporary music show.

What's that Sound?!

Perennium

Dismal Co 1811

'Denali' for trio (2019) performed by Ensemble Onsombl (Johannes Macdonald, Solomon Frank, Mark Bosch). 

More info and sheet music at: https://angusdavison.com/

'Denali' for trio (2019)

Live Recording of the premiere of 'Cave Speak' (2019)

Performers: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, on 25th January 2020

Composed as part of the 21st Century Cybec Composers Program 2019/20.

Composer's Note:
Can we hear our past? It is after all, an impossible venture but reimagining a once-occupied space from prehistory opens possibilities for sound worlds beyond the resonance. Based of my solo archaeological fieldwork in Moià, Catalan in 2018, this work is founded on transcriptions of field recordings taken in the karstic caves of Coves del Toll. Reimagining a space and its past inhabitants, from the distant clattering of bones, wood and the movement of flames and underground water to museum records of ancient fauna such as the prehistoric bears and lions, perhaps the whispers and voices in the dark can speak.

Cave Speak (for orchestra)

Solomon Frank and Julia Drouhin improvising with frogs, kookaburras, highland cows, crickets, hose, clarinet, petit cristal baschet, radio, karaoke microphone, dog toy, wind and air around this peaceful body of water in Tarraleah, lutruwita-Tasmania during the Australia Art Orchestra Creative Music Intensive 2019.

BODIES OF WATER

So Hot You're Hurting My Fingers

Composer; Improviser; Inter-species musical collaborator; Receiver and interpreter of musical emails from the future

https://www.solomonfrank.com/

solly.frank@hotmail.com

Or watch it
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqFte9Tufgl3dw7kV37wW-Q

Throat Pleats
https://www.facebook.com/throatpleats

Onsombl Ensemble
https://soundcloud.com/ensembleonsombl

Beethoven Symphony No. [REDACTED]

Solomon Frank

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