Llew Kiek
Llew Kiek brings Balkan string and drum colour to chamber, choir and dance scores, arranging traditional Bulgarian song and writing folk fusions that sit as easily beside baroque viols as under open-throated voices.
On Songs With Mara he is music director and multi-instrumentalist, playing tambura, bouzouki, baglama and davul through a programme built from Bulgarian traditional song and dance, with short original pieces by the Kieks woven among the folk material. With Mara Kiek he turns English country dance and bush ballad into odd-metre play: on Spinning Forth their take on The Cheshire Rounds rides a Bulgarian 11/8 before gliding into The Streets of Forbes, proving how far a gamba ensemble can travel in time and place. He also joins early-music company on gittern, and as producer helps keep the close intervals of Bulgarian choir and the intimate detail of viol programmes sharp and alive.
Compositions by Llew Kiek appear on
Songs With Mara
The music originated as the score for Meryl Tankard's Australian Dance Theatre show of the same name. Mara and Llew Kiek perform and arrange this mostly traditional Bulgarian repertoire.
Songwriter
Arranger
Producer
Other credits
Across the Top
Paul Cutlan is one of the very few Australian composers who works in the overlap between classical and jazz. Here he finds an ideal partner in the NOISE quartet, which extends its performance techniques with improvisation.
Editing Engineer: Edited By
The Martenitsa Choir
Formed by Mara Kiek in the early 1990s, this choir has mastered the Bulgarian choral singing style. Here they perform with gusto and precision. The music will knock your socks off!