Rabbitsss: Penguins and lots of exciting stories!!

OKIE DOKIE!
What a year this has been.. once again (dare i say it), it has flown by.. so many exciting things to announce here (including two album releases!!), as it's been a while.. so. working backwards..

It's been a long time coming (8 years or so when we began), so I'm ultra pleased to report that my electronic collaboration with Jon Cohrs from New York is now public!! Under the name 'Rabbitsss', we've just released an album called 'Penguins'.. It's available on iTunes, Amazon, EMusic and Spotify.. Please share a link, befriend and buy if you like it!!!

It all began way back in 2006 at The Banff Centre in Canada where I met Jon whilst doing a Winter Music Residency. We continued remotely for a few years following the first few recordings in Banff.. recording other tracks in Melbourne, New York, Berlin, Gotland Sweden and then other bits remotely again.. I worked with Andrew Bencina on a few tracks at Winterhill Music Studios in Melbourne too.. long story short, it's taken a while, but it's finally out for everyone to hear!!

Here's a couple of pics working with Jon in New York, on the rooftop of his old apartment in Brooklyn:

Rabbitsss on the rooftop New York

Rae Howell New York

Recently I had a couple of fabulous months in Australia, March and April: performing, recording, workshopping and general catch-ups with friends, family and many long lost creative types that have crossed my path somewhere along the line.


Some selected members of the Sunwrae Ensemble came together for an exclusive show in Melbourne, premiering a whole new repertoire of my recent music.. (unrecorded as yet, but that's in the plans at some stage). It was great to see so many familiar Sunwrae audience members, who all filed in, filled the hall and even stood up to cheer at the end! What a home-coming!

Anyways, it feels like so long ago now, but one really exciting project I was a part of during March, was with an amazing artist Bryony Anderson and her One Off Makery community. Many moons ago, Bryony asked me to be involved in her project called Frugal Forest. Fast forward a year or so and stage one is complete..

Check out the amazing little short film about it here... http://vimeo.com/93115721


The photo below is the prototype of a life-size, large-scale, long-term installation project, to be launched January 2016. It's made entirely out of waste materials (plastics, metals, paints, material, wax papers, twine etc..). My assignment is creating the soundscape (immersive surround sound) of the rain forest: birds, frogs, rustling animals, trickling water, weather storms, wind through the trees.. recorded solely with waste materials too (balloons, hoses, rubber duckies, PVC piping, polystyrene, glass bottles, jar lids, umbrellas etc)...

Frugal Forest / One Off Makery

It's back to the drawing board for a few months now, but updates will come as time progresses.. Big thumbs up to Bryony Anderson & One Off Makery. I cannot wait for the next round..


First up this year saw another album release.. Heavy Forest Air.
I think I mentioned it on the last update here.. it's a live spontaneous musical collaboration between Eugene Skeef on all things percussive and myself on vibes & marimba. Recorded by Jared Miller in the Rolston Recital Hall at The Banff Centre, Alberta Canada, it was an impulsive venture in this magnificent hall filled with percussion instruments, that began as an experiment following an intensive three month winter music residency (the same residency where I met Jon from Rabbitsss!). I highly recommend it as it's an absolute gem of an album! You can buy it here.. http://www.sunwrae.com or also from iTunes. It has been released in the UK by Kooky..

Well. That's about it for now.. stay tuned for more news over summer..

10 months flown! Guildhall Masters tick! Musical ventures in Palestine and NEW ALBUM (!)..

wowwee.. 10 months have just flown by and i see the calendar will clock over to December next week.. Blimey! i feel i should back track a little considering the time past..

It's been a busy year this one. I finished the masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, my final project being a collaboration with tap dancer and choreographer Junior Laniyan. Readers may remember my post from november last year about the london tap jam.. well, Junior and i created a half hour show of live music (performed on piano, harp, bass clarinet and violin) and 5 tap dance extraordinaires! the next plan is to develop it into a full length show..

Musicians I work with were Ausiàs Garrigós Morant on bass clarinet, Katya Herman on harp and Eugene Feygelson on violin.. such fabulously talented people to work and play with.. And the amazing tap dancers were Junior Laniyan, Ryan Campbell-Birch, Thomas Kempf, Eilidh Ross and Avalon Rathgeb. Such a great project to immerse myself in.. cannot wait until the next installment..

here's a pic of me from the technical rehearsal..

and a little montage from rehearsals..

ok, so next story, as part of the masters back in march, my fellow students and i had a venture to Palestine, for a music exchange with Beit Al Musica and the Edward Said Music Conservatorium. this was the second part to our initial collaboration in London in October last year, however this time we visited their homeland and surrounding areas, immersing ourselves in their culture.. what an amazing time we had, meeting and playing with really fantastic musicians, running workshops for conservatoriums there, amongst touring about a little in Bethlehem, Ramallah, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem on the final day..

i swam in the dead sea!

the exchange group...

i was also commissioned in May this year.. a solo piano work, written, recorded and hand-scribed by yours truly.. the perfect job!

On the completion of my masters, I also said goodbye to the collection percussion instruments I've become so close with over the past couple of years..

a sad goodbye to all the percussion instruments..

By this time I was in good need of a holiday, so a trip to Portugal was in order..

Porto, Portugal..

And more recently I played with Ruthless Jabiru, the All-Australian Orchestra in London conducted by Kelly Lovelady, performing at Union Chapel in London.. here's a couple of pics from the rehearsals..

OK.. so... finally, I'd like to end with the announcement of a brand new CD, called Heavy Forest Air.. it's a live spontaneous musical collaboration between Eugene Skeef on all things percussive and myself on vibes & marimba. Recorded by Jared Miller in the Rolston Recital Hall at The Banff Centre, Alberta Canada, it was an impulsive venture in this magnificent hall filled with percussion instruments, that began as an experiment following an intensive three month winter music residency. I highly recommend it as it's an absolute gem of an album! buy it here.. http://www.sunwrae.com

thanks and see you all very soon...
Australian audiences stay tuned for a visit in March / April 2014... finally!

ps. poly was put up online this year..
pps. for any vibraphone players out there~ the sheet music of Decipher the Crooked Ways for solo vibes is now available to buy.. please contact us for more details!