“We’ve made a conscious decision to compose freely in this band, not feeling restricted by genre, just bringing whatever we feel like to the table. You can hear influences of Jazz, 20th Century Classical music, North India Classical music, South American music. With the instrumentation of the music and the mixed influences, you could very much describe it as a contemporary jazz band.”
Category: Album Releases
“My music sounds like me and it sounds like someone who has not grown up in a major centre like Melbourne, or New York, or London. For a long time I was ashamed of this. But I have begun to realise this is also what makes my music worth listening to; its a part of what makes it unique. Matthew Sheens is also from Adelaide (although he’s been living in NY for many years) and Myele Manzanza comes from Wellington in NZ (which is even smaller and more isolated than Adelaide, where I am from). All three of us are coming from the outside of the centre of the worlds we love, participate in and contribute to. The Outsiders is my reflection on all of this.”
Steve Barry’s recent writing has evolved a highly individual and idiosyncratic language that colours the logic of his melodic line. Harmonically he has become even more adventurous, and rhythmically he plays with time and the stretching of time in truly eye and ear-opening ways.
I don’t know how much distance there is between Carla Bley and Frank Zappa, but Cheryl Durongpisitkul covers it with ease. And, however helpful references and namedropping might be to describe a sound, it is mostly just noise. Because, the loudest, clearest, most assertive voice here, is that of Cheryl Durongpisitkul herself.
“This is all me finding my own voice and sharing my music and my stories in the world. My leading single is a tribute to the old-school jazz and soul sounds I grew up and fell in love with, but with a little contemporary twist”
How would you describe the dynamics of Torrio!?
Niko Schauble: Every input is welcome. Every output is celebrated. There is no leader. The direction becomes clear through the performance.
Jonathan Dimond said, “Tripataka is the playing field, the tester of protypes, and the practical vehicle that balances the theoretic research into the nexus between Western and intercultural composition and improvisation that I have been exploring since my earliest years of music-making.”
Slater’s voice is a perfect choice for the Trio and Stephenson’s songs. Bell-clear, it is a fluid thing, like smoke or drifting water, avoiding any grating blues edges or forced earthiness. It is this instrumental quality a hallmark of all valid jazz singing that fits so neatly with the modern angles and curves of Stephenson’s compositions
Self Aware of Myself weaves together song, interview fragments and spoken text to form fragmentary portraits. At the core of the project is set of interview questions by Georgie Darvidis that are whimsical, candid, and quietly revealing.
“This is a very gentle album were releasing and its a gentle sounding ensemble. I dont believe I would have been writing this kind of music, or certainly an albums worth and more of this kind of music, if it hadnt have been for having kids. Partly it came about from sheer tiredness.”