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!

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!

olympics, paris, curious festival and more..

so the month of june was filled with rehearsals, writing and practicing for a silent movie performance and preparing my assessments for guildhall.. busy month! the silent film project was a fabulous one, directed by the great tim metherall from melbourne.. i'll be recording the music in the next month sometime, so i'll post it up as soon as it's done.

to end my first year at guildhall, the department had a festival at the 'people show' in london, during the first week of july. I was lucky enough to perform every night with a number of different groups, playing piano, vibraphone and singing even.. there's no photos from this just yet, but hopefully the powers that apparently be will send them through at some stage..

during that week, great friends of mine from minneapolis usa were visiting.. jared and julia.. jared miller, from the filter lab i met in 2006 whilst in residence at the banff centre in canada.. he's one of the best audio engineers i know on this planet (he didn't even pay me to say that)! i had the pleasure of working with him way back in 06, recording in the rolston recital hall, an improvised album with the composer/percussionist extraordinaire eugene skeef from south africa / uk.

for the first time in more than 6 years, jared, eugene and i were in the same room, nattering on as if no time had passed. and i'm pleased to say that our album (albeit overdue) is nearly ready! it's been remixed and mastered this year, using some images from the fabulous photographer brian goff, from tacoma washington, usa, also in residence in banff at the time. we spent much of the day reminiscing and putting the design together for its release. sunwrae fans will love this record!

here's jared and julia making there way home from world's end...
more news to come on the album 'heavy forest air'...

so with school over for the year, performances done, album organised, it was definitely rest time.. as well as catchup time on all the things i've put aside (hence my late blog post here!). and summer time! well, it's the wettest summer here in 90 years apparently, but occasionally the sun has shone through the clouds, with enough warmth to defrost my toes. finally!

managed to spare a couple of hours in the guildhall 'studio' (if that's what they call it!) to record a couple of tracks (including the original version of the machine, with vocals!) with italian singer nicoletta tiberini.. stay tuned to hear some of these sometime soon..

so at this stage, london was getting busier of course, with the lead up to the olympics. the local council here started putting up some quirky sculptures to make life a bit more enjoyable..

and the culture/entertainment kept on coming from the london cultural olympiad festival.. well, bt river of music festival was a hoot. i spent 21st/22nd july in greenwich at the oceania stage, the highlight being the wantok musik sing sing, directed by david bridie (not drowning waving, my friend the chocolate cake).. a fabulous collaborative performance by 24 (i think) artists, from different cultures in the australasian and oceanic region.. amazing! engineered by the master audio guru brett doig (who did the live sound for sunwrae's thornbury theatre show in '09), i was fortunate to get an artist pass and schmooze with the artists (thanks brett!). here's a couple of pics from the weekend:

 

phil wales on the left.. go phil!!

and here's brett hard at work..

on the sunday.. for the first time in, mmm, 5 years?! i saw natalia mann (the original harpist in sunwrae).. she was too far away on stage to get a clear pic with my phone, but the photo below is her performing harp with the maori/irish collaboration from new zealand (and a tap dancer, yay!). natalia has been living in turkey for some time and now spending time between there and new zealand..

and the artists afterparty.. wow jools holland was amazing! so many awesome players and guests on the stage, very memorable. and after the afterparty.. the sky was clear and i saw two stars!! the first time in london i've seen stars! yay!

then it's olympics time.. here, the cloudy old grey day was the opening day.. the view from my flat when the olympic flame travelled the thames to the olympic village...

ok. phew! it nearly takes me up to date.. except most recently (on the weekend) i decided to escape london and catch the eurostar to paris to soak up some days in the sun, sipping wine and tasting an array of their delicious foods.. no photos unfortunately (i was having too much fun!), but i'll be back there soon and will post some up... i did however see the wonderful national jazz orchestra performing for the paris jazz festival.. a tribute to astor piazolla.. fabulous arrangements!

over and out for now..

the first day of the rest of my life

so we all say at sometime or other "this is the first day of the rest of my life", however i actually had one of those moments today. often it takes a serious step outside your normal (whatever that is) lifestyle to realise it. ok, it may sound huge and life-changing (perhaps it is), but i have to warn you before you read on, it's certainly not one of those life and death situations.. it's just about balancing wherever i am now (generally~ life in london, studying, searching for the next step, trying to become famous etc.. joking about that last thing) with what i really want out of the various situations and places i find myself in at the moment as well as my musical journey into the unknown.

i'm currently in hong kong, it's well past midnight and tomorrow i'm due to fly back to london to resume my studies at the guildhall school of music & drama. i've had a week out of my latest routine in london to investigate a few external projects, which ultimately i've found, feed back in to my studies. i've been in quite some frustration as to whether i'm doing the right thing (the whole thing of studying i mean) and whether they can deliver what i really want. as i said though, i had this revelation today and i feel refreshingly invigorated.. 

the interesting thing is that until now, i've also escaped the academic world to some extend, or rather, i've haven't had a great desire to investigate the academic nature of my musical aesthetic. that is, i haven't felt it necessary to explain why i create and how i create, except for the fact that it is me expressing myself and my experiences, sometimes perhaps in relation to visuals and responding to another artistic aesthetic. i've just had this vague removed obsession to be respected by the academic industry of music, whether that be classical, contemporary, avant garde, conceptual composition (the list goes on).. however it's only now, by taking some time in hong kong and chatting with a great old friend king pan ng, who i studied with during my undergrad at melbourne university 12 or so years ago, that i realise that it is that particular challenge of 'reading' exactly what my musical aesthetic is, that is how i will truly be able to express in perfect form (for me) what i do, how i do, why i do whatever it is that i do (i'm training to be a magician for those who don't know). i understand of course that it will change, develop, evolve, afterall that is the nature of life, and that is the exciting thing, however what i'm trying to say, long-windedly, is that i finally want to articulate in words, what i'm doing, in such a way that it can help my growth as an artiste (or magician). perhaps it can also help me to develop my audience outside my usual streams of searching.

here's a pic of king pan at the piano, talking, playing, rabbiting on..

here's a couple of pics of king pan and i rabbiting on about musical aesthetics...

oops, i didn't agree with this one. 

and last night i went to macau to visit a casino 'the city of dreams', which is not a usual haunt, however i went to see the 'house of dancing water'. it's a spectacle theatre show of sorts for the masses, revolving around a giant pool of water. soo amazing the scale of it, entertaining, wonderful divers, professional performers, acrobatics, theatrical moments (as well as some cheesy ones!).. i took just one pic before my desire to just watch instead of document came through...

ok just looked at the clock and realised it's waay past my bedtime to do what i need to do tomorrow before i fly back to london.... more about my musical aesthetic later, but for now, it's been a truly great venture to hong kong and the many hidden gems it has..

hong kong, til next time...

ps. so many stories still to come!!

april news for rae and sunwrae...

phew! it's april already?! the story of my life at the moment.. it's going too fast! where did the time go? a month since my last post?! ok i'm over my outburst. i have had some adventures though..

march was crazy busy with projects.. first and foremost was the dance and music collaboration with choreographer chris scott and 8 dancers from the london contemporary dance school, along with jenni wright, a fabulous french horn player from the guildhall school of music & drama. i wrote the music and played piano & vibraphone.. my london debut performances!! it truly was a great project to be involved in. chris and i were on the same page from day 1 (that's pretty rare i think!) and so hopefully we'll create something more in the coming year or two.. maybe to tour?! that's be good too! we were the finale act ( i like to think that's a compliment! ) and i think the audience liked it too.. wish i could post it here, but i haven't got the dvd (hoping to soon tho). here's a pic tho from my practice sessions...

next up.. my orchestral work was premiered on march 18.. apparently it was great but i haven't heard the recording yet!! hopefully they'll send me a photo too.. i'll be back with more when i know..

then... i had two weeks break (from my masters classes), which consisted of writing essays, project proposals and funding applications (fun stuff eh?).. but also an easter trip to st ives, cornwall.. the beach! now it wasn't exactly beach weather, but it didn't stop the pomms from gearing up in wetsuits and surfing what looked like not even a foot of surf. i laughed out loud sipping coffee from the warm of the beach cafe out of the rain, but gave them points for the effort.

next stop.. denmark! the home of lego!! legoland was awesome.. it's an amusement park with rides for kids and adults!! and so many amazing lego sculptures..
here's a very short but hilarious video from our trip there...

and some pics... couldn't resist this one..

there's even an underwater world with real sharks, fish and all sorts!

crazy that they're all made from tiny lego block huh!

mmm. so not much else on the cards, oh but ah! that's right.. i've taken up a new hobby.. bouldering! couldn't resist taking a picture of my shoes with the view from my flat in the background too..  ha! not that i'm climbing buildings, just walls and boulders so far. it's indoor too here, but maybe the wild outdoors will call when i'm somewhere with good rocks ;-)

mmm. so next musical venture is a short gig for sunday in the apartment.. then onto a project with an illustrator, idris hussain, to make an animation film... stay tuned for updates!!!

til next time, r