Performed by Nathaniel Otley (violin) and Mark Menzies (viola).

Recorded and mixed by Orange Studios, Christchurch.

With thanks to the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust. 

Composed as part of the Inspiring Explorers Expedition 2020.

---

The inspiration for On Satin Waters comes from a particular afternoon kayaking at Wilhelmina Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula. This day was especially dark and foggy, the water was like a giant black sheet of satin, so rich and reflective that the bright blue of the massive looming icebergs was mirrored in it. The silence was eerie, with just the odd gust of wind, slosh of water, or distant calving of ice cutting through the silence, difficult to isolate or locate its source.

This work transitions through four phases of reflection: titled Meditation, Whimsy, Immersion, and Breathe. The work does not break between each stage, rather, it continues slowly evolving through the stages, supported by the deep rumbling of the electronic tape, sourced from the audio of an underwater recording from the expedition.

This work is composed as part of the Antarctic Heritage Trust Inspiring Explorers Expedition 2020. Two key objectives of the Antarctic Heritage Trust are exploration and preservation. I aim to present these concepts within this work: the notion of exploration through exploring the capabilities and extremities of the instruments themselves as well as the direct inclusion of audio from my own exploration in Antarctica; and preservation both in the sense of preserving these sounds to share with a wider audience, and preserving my experience through the musical representation of the gradual evolving of my states of reflection.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to the Antarctic Heritage Trust for offering me this extraordinary opportunity to travel to Antarctica, and for their perseverance and support in getting our team back home during the challenges of COVID-19.

On Satin Waters

With endless thanks to Orchestra Wellington, conductor Marc Taddei, and sound engineers Andrew Dalziel and Graham Kennedy for this recording.  

This work draws from my reading of Donna Haraway's A Cyborg manifesto and explores the rejection of rigid boundaries, particularly in relation to distinctions between 'human' and 'animal' and 'human' and 'machine'. I carry over my learnings from Haraway into consideration of music as an art form, and how we treat concepts of nature, technology, and composer/human intervention in the creative process. 

Opening with a reinterpreted Respighi theme 'The Dove' from The Birds, the work begins with consideration of the pure and natural, and the highly crafted representation of the living world. With the introduction of the tape, we turn to birds in the metallic, and begin to question the boundaries between nature and technology.

"Irony is about contradictions that do not resolve into larger wholes, even dialectically, about the tension of holding incompatible things together because both or all are necessary and true. Irony is about humor and serious play [...] At the center of my ironic faith, my blasphemy, is the image of the cyborg". - Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto

i am not made of mud or meat or music

Performed by Jennifer Timmins, live recorded in Melbourne, Australia.  

With thanks to the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Composed as part of the Inspiring Explorers Expedition 2020.

wavering horizon

Performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra, 2021.  Recorded by RNZ.

Ephemeral Bounds

Written for the Ximenez Quartet, and performed at Evolution Quartet, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, July 2022.

This work is about preservation and exploration, reflection and expansion, beginnings and evolutions, hospitality and journeys.

Ximenez Quartet: Karin Cuéllar Rendón, violin; Simon Alexandre, violin; Namgon Lee, viola; Jessica Korotkin, cello

In this Eden, kōwhai blooms

Performed at BIFEM 2019 

Aaron Barnden, Violin
Mauricio Carrasco, Guitar
Samuel Dunscombe, Clarinet
Gemma Kneale, Cello
Evan J Lawson, Conductor

SATURDAY 7 SEPTEMBER, 2019
10:30AM
ULUMBARRA THEATRE, BENDIGO

Reo Hou | Future Voices NZ is supported by the University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, Creative New Zealand and the Lilburn Trust

Live Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Myles Mumford and Jem Savage
Image: Good One Graphic Design

Sehnsucht

Performed at Nelson Composers Workshop by Barbara Paterson (sop), Keir GoGwilt (vn), Jack Hobbs (vc), Gabriela Glapska (pno), Justin DeHart (perc), Alex Taylor (conductor).

Recording thanks to Phil Brownlee.

'A' Is For Apple

Performed by NZTrio as part of the 'Impetus' Composers Award Concert 2019.

(ir)rationality

Performed at the Nelson Composers Workshop 2020

Barbara Paterson - Soprano
Mark Menzies - Violin
Gabriel Baird - Bassoon
Leah Thomas - Bass Clarinet
Charley Davenport - Cello
Gabriela Glapska - Piano

Recording and editing by Josh Braden.

the Edge of the Sea

Ōtepoti based composer. Currently working on a series of works on the themes of Exploration and Preservation, as part of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust Inspiring Explorers Project.

Ihlara McIndoe

Popular tracks