0:00 - 3:16
The series of recordings that are the creative research outcome of my PhD are entitled ‘Retroreflection and waterfalls’. It is comprised of three improvised duets with myself singing and another musician: i) ‘Pipe dreams’ with Chris Abrahams on piano, ii) ‘Perfect age’ with Carl Dewhurst on guitar, and iii) ‘Chasm’ with Peter Farrar on alto saxophone. The collection also includes a solo improvisation, ‘Drove on’, with myself singing and playing cello. The audio included here has excerpts from all pieces. The music was recorded in a studio at the completion of a fifteen-month singing practice project where I practiced singing in atypical practice settings with extreme acoustics. The practice project used acoustics science empirical research and pedagogical approaches emerging from the movement and sports sciences to discover and develop musical materials and singing techniques for use in ensemble improvised music. The project focused on developing singing with a large dynamic range. As such, this series of recordings was done with no audio support, i.e., foldback/headphones, and the musicians were in the same room. No musical material was discussed before the recording.
3:16 - 6:43
On the completion of my major PhD project, I received a Korea Foundation Artist Fieldwork Research Fellowship to study p’ansori singing in South Korea fulltime for 6-months. The primary focus in this training was the quality of my singing voice, how to create what my p’ansori teacher refers to as ‘Earth’ tones in your voice as opposed to ‘sky’ tones. I find it useful to describe this as developing ways of putting grain or texture into the singing voice as opposed to a clear tonal quality. Another technical focus of the training was the development of a large dynamic range through resonance. After this 6-month training period I recorded an improvised duet with the drummer Simon Barker. The audio included in this portfolio is a series of excerpts from this recording. It was recorded in a Sydney studio without any audio support (i.e., no foldback or headphones), with both musicians in the same room, and without any prior discussion of musical material.
