Palestinian musicians & Arabic music inspiration, London Tap Jam and Strindberg..

OK, so it seems inevitable that this blog will be a monthly one.. which funnily enough has been happening anyways. i'll keep this post writing short, because there'll be more pics and videos to come, so this is just a taster.. and please check out my previous posts if you haven't before. there's loads of stories!

So this past month, however craazily busy, has been fabulous on all fronts creative and inspirational. and despite the weather settling into winter mode (hats, scarves and gloves all round) and the clocks changing so it's dark by 5pm, i think it'll be a month to remember.

The first three weeks of October saw me writing for a small theatre production by Foreign Affairs, a new theatre company based in London. The play was a new translation of 'simoom', written by the most famous Swedish playwright Strindberg, produced alongside the Scandinavian department at University College London (UCL) to celebrate his centenary.

the actors.. Junior Laniyan, Erica Chestnut and Jamie Pigott

In the third week of October, as part of my masters course, we had a residency off-campus in Hackney, hosting a group of Palestinian musicians, from Beit AlMusica Conservatoire in Shefa’amr and The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah (Palestine). 

Titled Narrow the Distance, the week long project was a cultural, collaborative and creative exchange project that brought together the Palestinian musicians as well as the various musicians from my Masters course at Guildhall (from the UK, The Netherlands, Greece, America and Australia of course, that's me). It was an intense week of music making, loong hours from morning til night, but very inspiring, creating music collaboratively from the smallest of ideas, rhythms and melodies, culminating in a gig at the Hackney Cut in Hackney Wick, a new live music venue on the London map. 

It was a very special week, creating some great music and magical moments.. here are a few pics from the week (i was a bit slack in taking too many photos, but hopefully some more will be passed on to me!).. 

in rehearsal..

Maya, Nizar and Amer

Akram Haddad

Nizar Kabbany

Mid week we were blessed by the company of Youssef Hbeisch on percussion and Ahmad Al-Khatib on oud, for a workshop on Arabic music and rhythms, after seeing them perform the night prior with the one and only John Williams on guitar, at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea. 

Here's a few pics from the workshop, the first explaining the basics behind Arabic scales, made up of a series of tetra-chords.. the second of Youssef Hbeisch explaining his use of Arabic rhythms in performance.. and the third of them playing together.. i have a video of this, however it's too big for the blog upload.. sorry!

Arabic scales in motion..

Youssef Hbeisch and Arabic rhythms..

Ahmed Al-Khatib and Youssef Hbeisch

and a couple of quick videos behind the scenes...

and a few pics from the gig itself...

On the following Sunday after the gig, I went to a tap dancing masterclass by Guillem Alonso, from Barcelona (yes that's right, with my new tap shoes, I'm reminiscing my dancing days as a youngster.. primarily to draw inspiration from the incredibly complex rhythms that come out!). That evening, October 28, I went along to the 6th birthday of the London Tap Jam, hosted by Junior Laniyan, one of London's finest tap dancers. The London Tap Jam is held at Ronnie Scott's jazz club once a month, featuring a live jazz trio & guests instrumentalists, alongside a myriad of improvising tap dancers.. it was a great evening all round.. 

I'll sign off this blog with a few short videos from the evening.. 
junior...

michael...

guillem...

there were some fab female tappers too and an amazing sand dance by Guillem Alonso, however once again the videos were too big to upload :-(

over and out for now.. more news to come soon!! 
on the horizon.. argentina!! whoop!

a day in the life...

so it's been a busy few weeks here, hence no blog posts! i have a little cabin fever from the 3-week-12/14-hour-each-day studio time, but i think it's been worth it and i've been very productive! i've finished notating 7 piano solos (including some back from 2001), an eighth is on the way and i've made a good start on two works for string quintet, as well as (gulp!) an orchestral work. wowee huh? hopefully i'll be inspired to keep it up when i'm back keeping the home fires burning in australia....

it's great to be so productive here and also kind of ridiculous to realise that i've been 9 years behind in putting my works on paper. i've made a plan to keep in front from now on. the other composers at the centre are busily working, so it's not hard to hibernate for a few days, then emerge with some stories (and new manuscripts!) over a beer or two. i've met new swedish composers here almost daily in the past week (who are studying at the school, which is in the same building at VICC), each with fabulous stories about their work and various projects and who are genuinely interested in all things music (they also assure me that gotland genuinely has lots of sheep, not just concrete ones). it has inspired me to think about studying again (yikes, did i really say that?) to challenge myself a little. yesterday a few of us saw the gotland symphonia perform at the university library. beethoven, ives and a local composer were the flavour of the day. it's a little strange for me, because day by day i'm interested in listening to more & more orchestral work. it must be a sign.

mmm. so as well as music for sunwrae, i've been doing a little electronic work. a week or so ago jon cohrs (NY/berlin, who i work with in 'rabbits without spleens') visited me here in visby, to continue working on some tracks we started (has it really been four?) years ago.


coffee, whiskey, peanuts and chocolate kept us going into the early hours each night, editing, recording and mixing what will eventually be an album of wicked electronic work (recorded in banff canada, melbourne australia, new york usa, berlin germany and now visby sweden... where to next?!). i'm sure any sunwrae fan will enjoy this fine music. i can't wait for it to be complete!

i also hear in the pipeline that the latest sunwrae recording (live at the thornbury theatre) is just about complete! i'll have it in my hot little hands when i arrive back in oz in may. stay tuned to our website homepage sunwrae.com in the coming weeks for sales...

so there's not long to go now. i'll take a few more pics this week and put a few mp3s up here to give you a taste of what's coming..

A hop, skip and a jump to Sweden... what is it with islands?!

happy easter out there! so i've just landed in a new part of the world (for me). it's the island of gotland in the middle of the baltic sea. the air is freezing (the water probably is too), but the snow has just about gone and the spring flowers are starting to emerge.... so what is it with these islands i find myself on? firstly itaparica in bahia brazil, then park island, hong kong and now gotland in sweden. maybe my first set of compositions during my residency here will bear the answer... or maybe not. apparently to dream of an island means pleasant journeys and fortunate enterprises?! i'm happy to believe that. no more questions.

so after a few weeks catching up on long lost time with friends in hong kong, switzerland and germany (note to self: must go back to berlin soon!), already i feel the effects of a successful venture. just two days here in the medieval town, at the visby international centre for composers (and although i haven't written much yet), i can say that it's an inspiring place to be... it's trully amazing what you see on a daily basis walking around town (admittedly i didn't take all of these photos, but could have if i wanted)..

so, as a unesco world heritage site and built sometime around the 12th century, as you can see, the stone walls, churches and structures are pretty old~ already they've outlasted some of the houses in australia. who would have thunk? enough of history though, that's not what i'm here for. now. i'm not sure what their fascination is with sheep (i can imagine the visby folk would get along well with new zealanders)~ but there are statues of the critters all over town. hopefully when this easter holiday weekend is over and i've successfully collected and eaten all my well hidden easter eggs, i can buy some much needed ugg boots to help the local economy. apparently lamb is the flavour of the decade too, so i may just have to arrive for dinner at the local bar tonight and wash it down with Wisby Påsköl, visby's local easter beer. see? it's not all about history.

well, best be off to start hiding all my easter eggs. it won't take long. see you back here when something else exciting happens.... like music ;)

i'll leave you with a couple more colourful pics of visby, so you don't get the impression it's all grey, doom and gloom...