Colin Bright
Colin Bright composes for landscape and psyche: Red Earth turns Aboriginal rhythmic practice and outback stasis into chamber music of pulse and ceremony, while SPACE hands improvisers a score built for vastness without centre or boundary.
His writing keeps returning to Australian space as felt fact. Red Earth moves from fast percussion ostinatos and didgeridoo-like note play into a slow, ceremonial second half with clapping sticks, drones and a ritual close that holds the flatness of the interior. Many Heads – Katatjuta answers Uluru country for solo cello; Earth Flowering Time and Night place him among short piano and chamber works of the same period. SPACE, made for his Syzygy Band, publishes the score so you can watch notated lines open into group improvisation. Concepts of outer space set the mind spinning: no centre, no edge, only flow, conjunction and opposition. The music is built to set imagination alight for players and listeners alike.
Colin Bright is featured on the following titles
SPACE
One work by Colin Bright, written for his Syzygy Band of outstanding improvising musicians. The score is printed in the booklet, so listeners can follow the notated passages and the points where the ensemble takes over in improvisation.
Compositions by Colin Bright also appear on
Red Earth
A world-premiere recording of important Australian works for instrumental ensemble. Performers and repertoire were hand-selected for the project, which was funded by the Australia Council.
Uluru: New Solo Cello Works for David Pereira
Twelve new Australian solo cello works written for David Pereira, celebrating the handing back of Uluru to its traditional Indigenous owners. Responses range from didgeridoo-like sonorities in Hopkins to the modernism of Dean.
Mere Bagatelles
As an overview of Australian composition in the 90s, this CD could not be bettered: a musicianly survey of short piano works, with performances of real authority.
Windows in Time
austraLYSIS is the brainchild of Roger Dean, and exists in several incarnations, including a live electronics band. Here they are in their standard chamber music format and have chosen a programme in which the linchpins are Xenakis and the music of New Zealand composer Lyell Cresswell.