Interior Echo is a journey of music and spaces. Listeners are treated to a series of intimate percussion works presented in FAC’s historic cell room, galleries and studios. This compelling and revealing promenade performance provides listeners with a personal experience of new percussion music – with edgy rhythmic grooves in one room, gentle melodic textures in another and group percussion in the next. The full ensemble then comes together in the Inner Courtyard for a rapturous finale.

This program celebrates music by Australia’s most influential contemporary composers including Matthew Shlomowitz, Kate Neal, Erik Griswold and more.

Piñata Percussion, based at the UWA School of Music, is acclaimed for its bold contemporary repertoire and championing the music of our time.

This performance is part of offBEAT, FAC’s annual celebration of rhythm.

Artistic Director: Dr Louise Devenish

Program

Matthew Shlomowicz Popular Contexts Vol. 6: Basic Bass Patterns (2013)
Performed by Jet-Kye Chong, Euphina Yap, Jackson Vickery

Matthew Shlomowicz is a South Australian born composer who lives and works in London. One of his three ongoing composition projects is Popular Contexts, a series combining recordings of real-world pre-recorded sound with live instrumental music. Volume 6 was composed for Speak Percussion, and we present here movement two: Basic Bass Patterns. Interrupted grooves and melodic riffs, irregular cyclic patterns and various recognisable electric bass samples feature throughout.

Liza Lim Love Letter (2011)
Performed by Jackson Vickery

Liza Lim is one of Australia’s leading composers, and developing long-term creative collaborations with ensembles is a core part of her practice. This work was commissioned by Speak Percussion for the ensemble’s tenth anniversary, and composed by Lim during a single long-haul flight from Melbourne to London. After James Tenney, the score is a ‘postcard piece’ – a set of instructions to guide the performer in developing a percussive realisation of a letter to their beloved on a single hand drum.

Peter Sculthorpe Djilile (1981/1990)
Performed by Tomm Barrett, Emma Bentley, Joshua Lindsay, Claire Orman

Peter Sculthorpe was one of the first Australian composers to write for percussion ensemble, with How The Stars Were Made (1971).  One of a series of works, Djilile was arranged for Synergy Percussion. It is based on an adaptation, with additional material, of the Aboriginal melody of the same name, which translates to ‘whistling-duck on a billabong.’

Rebecca Lloyd-Jones Bricolage (2016)
Performed by Jet-Kye Chong, Euphina Yap, Jackson Vickery, Rishma Pragash and Carissa Soares

Sydney-based percussionist Rebecca Lloyd-Jones is co-director of percussion group Bricolage, for which this piece was named. A bricolage is a ‘construction made of whatever materials are at hand’, a fitting description of the instrumentation of many percussion works. This bricolage features a range of instruments and objects including found metals, bowed crotales, saucepans, wind chimes, vibraphones, drums and a melodeon. These instruments are used in this collection of popular EDM, trance and rock music, reworked for percussion quintet especially for tonight’s performance.

Michael Askill No Rest From the Dance (2001)
Performed by Tom Barrett, Emma Bentley, Carissa Soares, Jet-Kye Chong, Joshua Lindsay and Claire Orman

Michael Askill’s work as a percussionist and composer with Synergy Percussion has played a major part in defining the sound and approach to percussion music in Australia since the 1970s. No Rest From the Dance draws on material used in one of Askill’s contemporary dance collaborations with renowned choreographer Graeme Murphy titled Salome (1997), and blends rhythmic influences from traditional African and western art music to generate a driving musical energy between the performers.

Erik Griswold Simple Addition (2005)
Performed by Euphina Yap and Rishma Pragash

The music of Queensland based composer Erik Griswold regularly features in Piñata Percussion programs. This duo comprises deep grooves for vibraphone and marimba augmented by items commonly found in painting and art studios such as this one: bowls, pots, springs and various found objects.

Erik Griswold Action Music (2013)
Performed by Jet-Kye Chong, Tom Barrett, Emma Bentley, Joshua Lindsay, Claire Oman, Carissa Soares, Rishma Pragash, Jackson Vickery and Euphina Yap

Action Music may be played by any number of instruments, in any combination, from soloist to orchestra – tonight it appears as a percussion nonet. Throughout most sections of the piece, the performers play together in a tight rhythmic unison, following the same general melodic shape. However, each player decides for themselves exactly what pitches, sounds, and instrumental techniques to employ, and each has selected their own instrument set for this work. Some sections use graphic notation – dots, dashes, and scribbles to depict the musical textures. Other sections use descriptions to suggest changes in sound or mood, such as ‘Massive Noise’, ‘Drunken, wobbly’, or ‘Sharp and edgy’.

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"This brilliant performance, impressive for its uncompromising precision and dazzling vitality, will not be forgotten by those lucky enough to have heard it"