Stories, biography, new projects

This main Stories page has biography and background, sounds beoming music, influences and interests, plus projects

'Stories' also links to:
australian aboriginal music;

A new section on culture - Australian Indigenous and 'mainstream'
- 'both ways'

contemplating 1;
contemplating 2 (latest);

tips, tricks & ideas;

name calling

Biogs and background

Born in Melbourne, Australia, August 1943, I have lived in the country and various cities; have toured, looked at, and listened to, Indonesia, Japan, UK ..

Current interests and projects lie in the areas of sound environment depiction, sonic exploring, music composition, Indigenous traditional song cycles, thoughts and philosophy - new and old ..

I like to assist in developing people's confidence in hearing, seeing and adopting our own sounds, images, songs and stories into our day to day life

‘My earliest childhood (musical) memories are of playing a pub piano - making up pieces whilst looking at story book pictures; of dropping stones and yelling into (reverberant) rain water tanks; becoming aware of the magpies (birds), eucalypt and pepper trees, the smell of the earth and rain in rural Australia .. have tried to make sounds and musics that portray these early impressions ever since‘

Have created works for cd, radio, dance, installation, film and commercial presentations over many years, winning a few awards along the way ..

Sounds becoming music; painting with sounds; sound pictures ..

Environmental sounds are often used musically in my pieces; they may be ‘simple’ bird song recordings, composed responses to special places, or they may be combinations of both.

Music is drawn from the ‘everyday’ sounds I hear; always available, they make pieces approachable, friendly ..

I see and hear music and ‘art’ as part of undivided life, not separated away from self, but as being the expressive and (fun) aspects that celebrate the connectedness of people, spirit and earth

Many pieces and sound environment recordings are called ‘sound pictures’; these fit in between nature's musics and people's musics, drawing on both worlds for inspiration and sounds
the term comes from the childhood piano playing 'technique' ..

My compositional techniques seem similar to those of painting .. painting with sound

I use the terms colour, layer, mood and sketching to describe the music and pieces being created ..

From John ..
'.. I think you are a unique talent with a wonderful ear for things and sounds that touch me deeply. I grew up in the bush and what I hear in your music is very special.
Don’t ever get a ‘real’ job.'

Environmental sounds change, as does their location and the time of day and night.
Places affect sounds through their geographic features; the shape, size, and make-up influencing their sounds to such a degree that they become intrinsic to each other; it is no longer possible to consider (or worry about) which 'comes first'

Individual (bird, wind, water) sounds may be perceived as being universal, but they’re not really.
They change from place to place; each particular combination (which is what we hear and respond to) being unique

Influences and interests

Music making is an all inclusive activity .. at least it is for me; everything is influential - people, place, space, environment, mood, time of day and night ..

It has proved to be a 'short step' (spread over a long time) in realizing that our nature sounds and musics really do form the bases of much of our music and, if we add (the locating factors of) environmental sounds into the mix, we end up in those particular places
Bird song are indicators of this as are (were) traditional Indigenous language dialects



Projects:

'Pattern recognition' - in bird song and beyond
Apropos of which, a new bird song cd, made for Australian botanic garden shops and featuring local (south eastern australian) bird calls - has been finished (have a listen here); lovely sounds (veryy nice playing in the background)

'Both ways' - cultural combining of old Australian Indigenous law with (some of) contemporary (western) view; constant considering, writing, submitting ideas ..
Some of the thoughts may be read on the contemplating 1 and australian aboriginal music pages

Seems to me, as we struggle out of old alienating industrial world into a newer inclusive and (much!) calmer responsive world, that the survival of (as much of) our older earth knowledge cultures will be of great import - as will the maintenance of (as much as possible of) our remaining unspoilt (repository) lands

'Sound pictures' - more (quietly) spectacular nature recordings that indicate such strong relationship between landscape and life; go to the downloads pages for tracks
We have been working on a very special project based on the most southerly land on the Australian mainland (the 'Promontory') - this extraordinary place still surviving sufficiently well to provide a wonderful example of such a relationship

There are also on-going projects coming from 'Daintree' rainforest (in the far north)

New music sketches are appearing on site all the time, lots of new instrumental colours, timbral, earthy, flying, space .. all with lots of room in which to engage and interact
The new musics are scattered all around the music pages - and sounds all through this section ..

'Sounds and musics' continues to grow and gains ever more interest and unexpected uses; some of these include:
- sound environments for children with reading difficulties (Sth America),
- kids dance in Canada & Australia,
- steam train sounds for tv soundtrack (Sweden),
- enviro 'poolside' sounds (!) (USA),
- crow (bird) sounds for cd track soundscapes (USA),
- happy music sketches for slide shows about children playing ..

It takes a lot of time sorting pieces, sounds, stories - after they've been discovered/written/recorded, then getting them 'webified'; anyone need a job?

'Installations' are public 'sound sculptures'; they have become popular over the past 15 years or so
Maybe they add qualities other than merely 'more noise' to seemingly overburdened city sound environments ..
I have made a few

Cairn’s (north Queensland) airport ‘sound experience’; this incorporates many sound snippets all playing different sounds of the daintree, great barrier reef and local areas; the sounds change as does the time of day and night - a giant musical mosiac

More details here

The platypus house at Healesville sanctuary - in Victoria - has a nice sounds environment; you can’t tell where the real and recorded sounds begin and end ..

Tips, tricks & thinks

Production and composition, thinking and listening .. tips and tricks
Go here for this page
These ideas and tips that may prove useful in finding new ways to produce new pieces .. or to just enjoy old ones

We have a soundtrack section too; this contains a selection of 'simple' music sketches, plus a selection of (slightly odd) sounds ..
You will be able to 'mix n match' a few - with a view to stimulating a few ideas for soundtracks ..
This is here

Contemplating

Essays on music, influences and thoughts
Go here
and here (latest)

Name calling

'Musicking' may not be a 'real job' anymore; I do like collecting real job 'names' though, either making them up - or noting the more spectacular as uttered (especially) by children, sportspeople, economystics, governments and 'think-tanks'

Some are used as titles for pieces; there are so many that we are starting a 'naming rites' page; some samples ..

'Re-incarnation is not permitted without government approval' !
(Chinese news report)

'Dreams - are what personal loans are made of' ! (sign in bank)

'Flying sorcerers' (Emily, aged three)

Go to the 'corporate rhetorical aphorism pages' here ! ..

Sounds and Musics - uses

Feel free to download any of the audio files that you like; you may use them for listening, wondering, thinking, planning .. if you wish to use them commercially, perhaps you might ask, first .. more here

Contacts

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