Enter an entrancing travelogue to a mythical island in the Pacific that is about to lose its innocence to global warming….
We are at the Famous Spiegletent for the launch of David Chesworth's new work and CD, ‘Vanishing Tekopia’. The ensemble is made up of what I consider to be ten of Melbourne’s musical gems, including Adrian Sherriff and Helen Mountfort. Together they render a highly sensitive and consummate playing of Chesworth’s post modern imagining.
Coming from a post Glass style that is based around repetitive motifs, the David Chesworth Ensemble lure us into an imaginary world where western intellect – the classical tradition, the written score - meets the joyous sounds of other cultures. Chesworth has found a match between the simplicity of modern classical minimalism with the figures and textures of folk music that sound ‘Pacific’. This works together particularly well under the propelling idea of western tradition journeying to encounter a mysterious ‘foreign’ island culture.
Rather than a clash it is a delightful encounter where the two cultures entwine and find common ground. This is shown initially by the ‘classical’ strings driving the piece with variations of minimalist cyclic motifs. As our journey progresses the role of strings is gradually replaced by the vibraphone(s) which echoes simple Pacific island type voicings but then builds to drive the piece, climaxing in an interplay between the two vibraphones, splashing freely back and forth. It is as if the western sailors have been greeted by the island locals.
‘Vanishing Tekopia’ draws together these influences but presents them in a restrained way. The vocals are beautifully delivered by Joanne Kuluveoski and Melissa Webb but because Tekopia has its own language we can only enjoy the sweetness of these (sort of) hula girls without knowing what they are singing about; as Captain Cook probably once did.
The effect is to somewhat mute the experience, but as the travelogue continues the listener is increasingly lured into projecting his / her own cultural memory bank onto this mysterious isle. In this way we are all creating Tekopia.
Vanishing Tekopia is gently propelling and playful, building with curiousity as it explores its themes.
The playing on the day was faultless and brilliant. David Chesworth even did a little conducter dance looking like a lost explorer in tweed. He remarked that the capacity audience was very quiet but this is only because we had all been lulled into the imaginary world of Tekopia.
David Chesworth Ensemble
Famous Spiegeltent
Sunday 19 March 2012
Vanishing Tekopia CD launch.
0 comments:
Post a Comment