Geoffrey Gartner
Geoffrey Gartner's cello threads through Halcyon's contemporary vocal chamber recordings, from brief Australasian commissions to Andrew Schultz's song cycles and Elliott Gyger's complex, glistening scores.
He works inside small bands of flute, clarinet, percussion and kindred colours, keeping two female voices front and centre while the instrumental writing stays lucid and alive. The music he serves can caress the ear in rhapsodic, reflective shades, or lean into multi-metrics, cross-rhythms and sharp word-painting. Elsewhere it turns florid and fractured, using silence and long descriptive lines to hold narrative tension from playful childhood texts to bleak meditations on drought and water. Across these premiere recordings the cello is part of a skilful blend that makes demanding new chamber song sound clear, electric and worth hearing again.
Geoffrey Gartner appears on
From the Hungry Waiting Country
Three astounding works by Elliott Gyger are presented by Halcyon, featuring the thrilling voices of Jenny Duck-Chong and Alison Morgan with some of Australia’s best performers. Challenging music that rewards every listen, full of mystery and glistening textures, its narrative holds you to the end.
This Moment Must Be Sung: Chamber Songs of Andrew Schultz
A special recording of chamber vocal music by Australian composer Andrew Schultz. Halcyon—Alison Morgan and Jenny Duck-Chong with a fine instrumental ensemble—has championed his writing for one and two voices across two decades.
Kingfisher
This CD is the result of a daring project to commission 21 composers to write new works for Halcyon's two singers, Jenny Duck-Chong and Alison Morgan. Presented over two concerts in their 15th anniversary year, and then recorded at Trackdown.