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Created by ARIA Award-winning composer and performer Genevieve Lacey, Breathing Space is an oasis of quiet reverberations, revealing the calls, tremulations and deep stirrings of Country.
Breathing Space, says Lacey, emerged from ‘years of walking and listening to the staggering sound library of the natural world, particularly during Melbourne’s long Covid lockdowns, when human din gave way to the acoustic detail of the living realm that surrounds us. My friend Alexis Wright, a member of the Waanyi Nation of the Gulf of Carpentaria, was an early counsel, generously offering rich conversations, and profound texts for inspiration and orientation. Ruth Little and I distilled her remarkable essay Thinking about Writing Climate Change Fiction into a series of short texts, which became the spine of Breathing Space.’
A context to compose and house the work came in the form of an invitation from the National Museum of Australia, as they sought to create a permanent installation in their Garden of Australian Dreams, a rich landscape of symbols that identify place, Country and home. The installation opens to the public at the end of March; this CD release is a distillation of its soundtrack. The soundscape pulses with human and other-than-human sounds, fills the site with choruses of frogs, cicadas, and ethereal instrumental and vocal phrases. The life and breath of these exquisite sounds brings shimmer and shift to a symbolic space, transporting listeners to wild landscapes of their own imaginations.
Tracklist
1. The World Will Always Need its Dreamers
The Consort of Melbourne, Linda Kent (organ), Eugene Ughetti (percussion)
2. Country Renews
Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola), Speak Percussion, Amadou Suso (kora),
Sunny Kim (voice)
3. Cool Burning
The Consort of Melbourne, Linda Kent (organ), Eugene Ughetti (percussion)
4. All Time is Intertwined
Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng), Vahideh Eisaei (qanun), Simon Martyn-Ellis (theorbo, baroque guitar), Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola)
5. Into the Trees
Phil Slater (trumpet), Marshall McGuire (harp), Linda Kent (organ)
6. Imilang Yinya
Lou Bennett (voice), Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola)
7. The Flow of Rivers, of Tides, of Stars
Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng), Vahideh Eisaei (qanun), Simon Martyn-Ellis
(theorbo, baroque guitar), Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola)
8. Forget My Name
The Consort of Melbourne, Linda Kent (organ), Speak Percussion, Phil Slater (trumpet), Marshall McGuire (harp)
9. The Ancestors Bring the Life Back
Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola), Sunny Kim (voice), Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng), Linda Kent (organ), The Consort of Melbourne
Breathing Space, says Lacey, emerged from ‘years of walking and listening to the staggering sound library of the natural world, particularly during Melbourne’s long Covid lockdowns, when human din gave way to the acoustic detail of the living realm that surrounds us. My friend Alexis Wright, a member of the Waanyi Nation of the Gulf of Carpentaria, was an early counsel, generously offering rich conversations, and profound texts for inspiration and orientation. Ruth Little and I distilled her remarkable essay Thinking about Writing Climate Change Fiction into a series of short texts, which became the spine of Breathing Space.’
A context to compose and house the work came in the form of an invitation from the National Museum of Australia, as they sought to create a permanent installation in their Garden of Australian Dreams, a rich landscape of symbols that identify place, Country and home. The installation opens to the public at the end of March; this CD release is a distillation of its soundtrack. The soundscape pulses with human and other-than-human sounds, fills the site with choruses of frogs, cicadas, and ethereal instrumental and vocal phrases. The life and breath of these exquisite sounds brings shimmer and shift to a symbolic space, transporting listeners to wild landscapes of their own imaginations.
Tracklist
1. The World Will Always Need its Dreamers
The Consort of Melbourne, Linda Kent (organ), Eugene Ughetti (percussion)
2. Country Renews
Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola), Speak Percussion, Amadou Suso (kora),
Sunny Kim (voice)
3. Cool Burning
The Consort of Melbourne, Linda Kent (organ), Eugene Ughetti (percussion)
4. All Time is Intertwined
Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng), Vahideh Eisaei (qanun), Simon Martyn-Ellis (theorbo, baroque guitar), Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola)
5. Into the Trees
Phil Slater (trumpet), Marshall McGuire (harp), Linda Kent (organ)
6. Imilang Yinya
Lou Bennett (voice), Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola)
7. The Flow of Rivers, of Tides, of Stars
Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng), Vahideh Eisaei (qanun), Simon Martyn-Ellis
(theorbo, baroque guitar), Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola)
8. Forget My Name
The Consort of Melbourne, Linda Kent (organ), Speak Percussion, Phil Slater (trumpet), Marshall McGuire (harp)
9. The Ancestors Bring the Life Back
Speak Percussion, Erkki Veltheim (violin and viola), Sunny Kim (voice), Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng), Linda Kent (organ), The Consort of Melbourne