Wednesday 16 December 2015

The End is Nigh

As my residency at Waaw Senegal draws to a close I thought I would share some more evidence of various activities including a small performance on solo violin and riti I made on the roof of Maison Waaw for the other residents and various local friends including drum teacher and riti lesson assistant interpreter Abdoukhadar Diop and Khadim Tall, a singer with whom I have worked extensively since arriving here in Saint-Louis (including recording fiddle tracks for his new album).

  


Images below of me working with riti master Alikha and drum instructor Abdoukhadar Diop accompanying on sabar.



My new/old acoustically centred approach to solo performance is firstly going to be aired at a performance back home in Brisbane at THE JUNK BAR, 17 Jan with The Stead As She Goes opening up around 7PM. Tickets $10. DETAILS. This is to celebrate the eventual release of my new tape STREET MUSIC VOL. 1 on CABIN FLOOR ESOTERICA the constituents of which points towards this style of down n out lonesome freak folk I've been presenting to audiences overseas of late. 

There will no doubt be another post soon enough...

My residency at Waaw Senegal was made possible with an Individual Development Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body. 

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Some recent activities in Saint-Louis


I performed recently at a local restaurant called La Lodo with chanteuse Mariam and her band Ifriquiya. This was the first time they'd collaborated with an international musician. 



A throwback to the Metissons festival organised by Institut Francais. Myself with local singer Khadim Tall and his excellent band.


Most recently I found myself in Saint-Louis studio Djar-Djar (Passage) recording parts for a new song by local band Orchestre Guneyi under the watchful eye of lead-singer Cheikh Baye Fall and his engineer pictured below.


My residency at Waaw Sengal, Saint-Louis, Winter 2015 has been funded by a Development Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government's Arts Funding and Advisory Body.

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Xalam Band

Just a little info about Xalam (a Senegalese lute, and a band, in this case I'm talking about the band version), the band in which Souleyman Faye - a singer with whom I've been playing at La Flamingo here in St-Louis - was/is a member.

X A L A M
















My residency at Waaw Senegal is made possible with a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body.

Friday 6 November 2015

Riti & Baye Fall Blues

Received my riti yesterday. Photos.




Riti built by my teacher Alikha. Further photos below of me performing on Wednesday night, as I did the Wednesday before, with local singer Souleyman Faye at a Saint-Louis hang, The Flamingo...a seedy joint with a great view and often great music.




Tuesday 27 October 2015

Update from Senegal 2

Last week saw the first meeting of myself and AliKha, a riti player from Bango, a predominantly Peuhl village on the outskirts of Saint-Louis. He came to visit Maison Waaw where I am residing and I, along with Ali and drummer Abdoukhader Diop, proceeded to improvise some music on the roof of the compound. Photos pre-roof.







Tuesday 20 October 2015

Senegambian Freakout 1

The title of this album is a not a recommended activity...I can only imagine how horrible that would be...the music however, is deep and incredible. As I dig deeper more will follow. WAAW SENEGAL residency has begun. For the duration of my residency here at Waaw, the musical content will shift a little from the usual fiddle-only content to various interesting morsels I come across that may or may not feed into my work here... Fiddle things will naturally still dominate.

Thursday 15 October 2015

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Report 1 From Senegal

Arrived in Dakar on 7 Oct to begin my second round of Australia Council for the Arts funded projects. Next week I head up to Saint Louis to being a two month residency at Waaw Senegal along with artists of varying other disciplines.
So far experiencing Sufi Jazz in all its glory...
More soon...



My residency in Senegal has been made possible by an Individual Development Grant from the Australian Government's arts funding body the Australia Council for the Arts.

Saturday 3 October 2015

Some Helsinki Evidence

My first gig in Helsinki was an impromptu sit-in with Horst Quartet, a group featuring Hermanni Yli-Tepsa on bass, the man behind organising my 27/9 gig at Krunan Mesta. The gig happened on 21/9 in the student occupation at Helsinki University where massive government cuts to tertiary education have been sparking protests and occupations all supported by university staff whose wages and futures have also been affected by the cuts. 


Me and cellist Sergio Castrillon performing free and liberated improvisations for violin and cello on Nikolai II in Helsinki's shining harbour on a clear night 25/9/2015. Sergio uses every inch of the cello and his voice in performance. 


The following afternoon 26/9/2015 I presented my paper Radically Quiet: An Auto-Ethnographic Reflection from the 21st Century Minimalist Underground. 

Abstract reads like this: 
‘Radically Quiet’ is an autoethnographic reflection on my recent path into minimalist music. Through reflections on my encounters with minimalism, this paper offers new perspectives on the minimalist repertory by exploring the influence of previously unpublished recordings of post-war minimalist music on the development of minimalist practices, such as my own, in the early 21st century. Further, this paper will focus on the minimalism of Black Metal, shedding new light on minimalism in the Nordic region through a discussion of the influential music found in the albums of Nordic Black Metal bands. This mixture of pioneering minimalism with recent minimalist undercurrents is not unique, it has inspired a large section of the 21st century underground. This paper will address these influences – as they manifest in both a stylistic and philosophical fashion – in light of my own experiences as a practitioner within the underground. Lastly, reaching back to the precursors of minimalism, and indeed to the practice of my own instrument, the violin, I will reflect on my experiences studying the Gondze fiddle of Ghana, a profound influence on my practice since encountering it during my time living in Ghana in 2013. By reflecting on my experiences of a distinctly West African musical tradition, I bring the discussion back to the roots of minimalism in Western 20th century composition through the unmistakable influence that West African music had on the genesis of minimalism. This collection of influences on my own work as an improvising violinist with a minimalist approach to my practice, places a mirror up to the wider state of minimalist music in the 21st century, an era where the dominance of “business” makes a minimal approach more radical and meaningful than ever before.

Received positive feedback from the delegates in attendance and from the convener of the session which consisted of several "Composer's Reflections". All in all the Minimalism Unbounded! conference was an interesting experience. More on the conference soon later.

After the conference came my solo performance at Krunan Keikkat in Krunan Mesta, Helsinki, 27/9/2015 as part of the Pixelache Festival. American, Estonian-based sound artist Patrick McGinley aka Murmer also performed, turning the space into an instrument. My performance followed:





















From Paris. Adam.

My appearance at the Society for Minimalist Music, Minimalism Unbounded! Conference in Turku and Helsinki, Finland September 2015, was made possible with an ArtStart grant from the Australian Government's art's funding advisory body The Australia Council for the Arts.