romania, bulgaria, war horse, the necks and cantina,

well, another month has passed, summer has been and gone and i've had some fabulous ventures..

the last week of august i flew to bucharest, romania..

flying to bucharest..

i met with a great friend of mine aneli, an artist who i met in brazil whilst in residence at instituto sacatar on the island of itaparica, bahia. we spent a couple of days in bucharest, her home, riding bikes around and taking in the sights of the city.. amazing.. we borrowed a car and i took the plunge of driving a left hand side drive subaru on the right side of the road, down to the seaside (the black sea), and across the border into bulgaria. after a puncture on the highway (they have gigantic potholes in the roads!) we stopped for a few days camping, right by the sea, nearby the small seaside village of krapets.

mojito anyone?

the bar..

the stage & outdoor cinema screen by the beach..

the food was amazing.. local seafood caught daily and traditional bulgarian dishes galore!

nothing left of this sea creature..

so amongst the many hours of laying in a hammock reading a book, i swam in the black sea daily, saw the sunset on the beach and generally soaked up the relaxing atmosphere...

sundown, moon up, over the black sea..

our artistic camping spot..

i knew i was a long way from home when on the way back to bucharest and romanian comforts we drove past these signs..

long way from home..

saturn and venus? really?

and over the blue danube on the way back to bucharest..

the blue danube river...

on my return to london, also marking my one year stay here, i said goodbye to the wonderful view in world's end..

goodbye world's end..

and i moved flats, to haggerston (dalston, hackney).. into a studio. my small upright piano now has a new home with a soundproof wall behind it so i don't annoy the neighbours (who just happen to be australian too.. small world)!

my lil' piano..

since i've been here in london, i'm back in regular contact with the amazing australian performer ivan thorley, an artist/dancer/puppeteer/all round maker of creative things, whom i met waaay back in 2000, whilst working on 'the angel show' (production by peepshow inc theatre company performed at la mama theatre, carlton, australia). anyways, ivan has been involved with some incredible projects over the years living in london (including the massive puppets for the olympic ceremony this year!) and at the moment, puppeteering for 'warhorse', the west end show, inside 'joey'. he flung me a ticket to their dress rehearsal on change of cast, which was fabulous.. the movements of the horse are really something. here's a sneak peak..

next on the agenda was meeting alex mizzen, an aerial artist who is here in london working with cantina (the aussie circus/physical theatre show), for the london wonderground at southbank. i saw cantina twice during its season here as part of the cultural olympiad, so if you get the chance to see the show (especially to see this wonderful lady perform), i highly recommend it!

i also saw the necks when they were playing in shoreditch last week (as always, a mesmerising experience) and next week i'm off to see the brandt brauer frick ensemble play (from berlin) at the southbank centre.

i've been to a few networking events and professional development seminars recently.. run by basca (the british academy of songwriters, composers and authors), apra (australasian performing rights association), the british library business & ip centre, and ukti (uk trade & investment), culminating in very interesting, inspiring information to give me a rev up in creative and business ventures and sometimes all round exciting brain waves.

phew! well, so it's been jam packed, but that's not all yet..
i'm just starting a project with a theatre company here, called foreign affairs. it's a strindberg play (a swedish playwright from many moons ago) called 'simoom'. rehearsals start monday, so i'll keep you all posted with how things progress.

the final year of my guildhall masters has also started and there's some great things in the pipeline. my first project is researching aspects of proprioception in relation to musicians working with physical performers (dance, circus, physical theatre etc). in a sense, it is the essence of proprioception and kinesthesia, and how music creation can be influenced by these studies, if the composer/performer is consciously aware of the physical performers' movements, rather than the gestures solely being an external event through vision. i cannot quite tell if that makes sense or not, but that the gist of my thoughts so far (but they may change too)..

ok, over and out for another month and i'll be back with updates soon!!
:)

a whole new world...

so recently i joined twitter. and i upgraded the sunwrae group to a 'page' on faceybook (with a little help from some computer-friendly friends ). it's a whole new world in the social stream for me and frankly i'm not sure i can keep it up, but i'll give it a red hot go for the sunwrae tour (you'll notice, all four of you that are reading anyway, that even this blog is out of date.. you see? i tells the truth). anyway, back to tweeting. still not sure exactly what i should tweet. afterall, who wants to know that it's past 11pm and i'm still working? don't i have anything better to do? well, at the moment, no. just tour stuff. i updated my website, the faceybook thingemy, i tweeted about limelight mentioning the sunwrae tour, drafted an e-mailout to the subscribers, replied to way too many emails, had a skype meeting with my fabulous tour manager KJ and it'll start again all tomorrow. i suppose however, that the most part of the day (until 4) was spent (finally) at the piano... i want more days like today!

i'm nearly finished writing the string parts for 'sem duvida', a brazil-inspired work. can't wait to perform it... but there's a long way to go on my other new pieces before they'll get to the stage. still, tomorrow will again be at the drawing board (literally, it's where i'm writing music, with a big screen, laptop & midi keyboard, next to my grand piano), with less business, more music.

my playing has been given a rev-up the past month, with me practicing some crazy scalic runs. trying to train my let hand to be more like my right. i think it has become a little lazy after the summer silly season. but you get that. well, i do. the book's called 'the virtuoso pianist'. apparently it's meant to be playable (up to speed) in an hour. freak, if anyone can do that, with this book, including the repeats, they deserve a medal (it'd want to be a big one and i'm not paying). but good luck to them with having any kind of life. i don't think it's possible anyway. and if someone challenges me (that probably means one of your four as i'm not sure anyone else reads this), go for it. i'll give some kind of special prize. if you have suggestions, bring them on.

oh. and trumpet practice this week too. of course, anzac day is coming up and i'll be suitably celebrating the day (well, commemorating) with the buninyong rsl in victoria. i think this, 'the last post', my community service, now stands at 16 years (or thereabouts).. who would've thunk i could have lasted that long?

other stuff...
played a gig with david ross macdonald last week, an album launch at the northcote social club. lovely show all round, playing with some fab muso's.. and i'm happy to say that my name is now on a vinyl release. it's definitely inspired me to release something of sunwrae on vinyl. sometimes it's all i play at home (vinyl that is, not sunwrae, that'd just be weird).

and last thing for tonight. lordy how many things i'm learning, day by day, i can't believe it. even if it's to nod, smile and back away from people who you know aren't going to listen. or to double check that last move in that hard sudoku (you feel crap if you mess it up in pen). or practice makes perfect (or does it?!). whatever the case, i'm listening and learning and can't wait to turn off my computer and fall asleep. if anyone is still reading this, thanks. you've made my day, and certainly the blog, worth writing.

i'll leave you with an image i found from the archives... from the apollo bay music fest in 2007.. sketched by kellie o'dempsey during our performance there... not sure who took the photo..

home sweet home again...

so 2010 is here.. and i'm back home in victoria, australia. the last month in brasil went very quickly as i had imagined, but was the most memorable part of my adventure. i met a number of amazing musicians there during december and had the chance to play with some of them as you see below... it was a shame that i left when i did, as i was just starting to make my little mark, meet the right people, understand more portuguese and learn the things i wanted to. of course, this just means that i must go back and initiate another project! now that i have some perspective on the journey, i can easily say that it changed me. experiencing brazil with your own eyes is the only answer to any questions one may have.. and certainly this blog hardly even scratches the surface. i'm choosing not to write about so many things i experienced, because writing about them doesn't justify anything~ and when you're that close to the bone, there's nothing you can write in this space that explains who, what, when, where, why and how. all i know now, is that my eyes are wider and i'm definitely wiser for having been there. thankyou unesco for that opportunity...

so..... below is a band i saw in the pelourinho~ a hoot of a night out and about in salvador! crazy adventures meeting many musicians, singing in the streets with spontaneous bouts of body percussion... then 'the cortejo afro band', the singer pictured was crowned king of carnaval in salvador this year...
i also played a show at the museum of modern art (on udu/moringa!)... with a group of amazing jazz muso's. every saturday night for the past 10 years, ivan huol has lead this band, with many guests each week from around the world. it was a great experience and my first ever show on udu!
after this show... a small set-back... yikes! the large udu had a crack! ouch! so into the bahian wilderness i went again ~ to maragogipinho ~ to have another one made, just in time for my final show in itaparica. the ceramicist mended the old moringa too, which i gave to a fellow brazilian musician~ another reason to go back!

later in december, i met up with ronaldo borges (bass player with carlinhos brown, whom i met at the cortejo afro band show).. below is pic of us playing together on the steps of the famous bonfim church~ very funky bass played indeed!

and again, later that evening, another musician i met roque vinicius (just incredible voice), ronaldo and i played into the night at a bar near the church... very memorable evening... i had met roque at the museum of modern art gig.. and learned this night that he and ronaldo had known each other for 25 years! i think i must have been in the right place at the right time... and at the end of my residency, instituto sacatar had an open day, where all the artists showed their work in progress. what a day of amazing visual art, a few delightful christmas presents, delicious traditional food and many-a-caipirinha (drink made from cachaca, brazilian rum)! we played well into the evening once again...

so my journey home to australia was long (5 flights!).. my luggage was of course left in chile, but arrived a few days later... miraculously, my moringa (and bottles of brazilian rum) arrived in one piece! yay!

and now onto my next adventure... europe! i'll keep you posted of my plans in the coming weeks as they come to light... in the meantime~ happy new year and see you very soon!