CONCERT
WA Academy of Performing Arts
Decibel ensemble
Review: Rosalind Appleby
3 stars
March 2016
Decibel
ensemble laid down the challenge to French (predominantly) electronic composers
to create music for acoustic instruments. The result was a concert of essentially
acoustic music informed by electronic ideas.
OCCAM
OCEAN HEXA II co-written by Eliane Radigue and Carol Robinson was premiered by
Decibel last year. I can see why the group chose to give the work another
outing. It is a subtle, gentle and intense work which opens inaudibly – the
occasional scratching from a cello bow scratching across a string tailpiece. As
the volume gradually increased the performers (cello, percussion, viola, flute
and clarinet) used alternative fingerings to mis-pitch notes making clouds of overtones
that hummed, hovered and moved incrementally, without any electronic effects.
It was both soothing and unsettling; an incredibly simple concept and a
completely otherworldly experience.
Two
works by Lionel Marchetti explored the interactions between a performer and a
loudspeaker. In Une serie de reflets a
clarinet note was heard through a speaker and echoed by the live clarinettist,
the sounds blending into a drone. The same idea was applied to harmonica, bass
flute and various other instruments. The performers swapped instruments based
on directions from Iphones but otherwise they improvised their interactions
without a score. The electronic sounds grew increasingly dark and a low string
drone became the foundation for a piece of immense musical architecture that
included a percussive tapping from the piano while flute and clarinet wove micro
sounds above. The resulting hymn-like scaffolding seemed simultaneously fluid
and stationary. A stunning world premiere of a work that deserves to become a
signature Decibel piece.
Marchetti’s
Premiere etude (les ombres), first performed by Decibel in 2012, felt a little
gimmicky following on from this. The work was built around intentionally imperfect
imitation creating a discordant duet between the instrumentalist and the loudspeaker.
The sounds were birdlike, mechanical and often unsubtle. For some reason the
simplicity of the idea didn’t translate to a significant aural experience,
despite the efforts of the ever-professional Decibel ensemble.
This review copyright The West Australian 2016.
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