Expect some weird and wonderful sounds emanating from Hotel Esplanade Basement this year, thanks to experimental new music specialists, Ossicle Duo.
Ossicle Duo (trombonist Benjamin Anderson and percussionist Hamish Upton) are all about the exploration and extension of sound. Based in Melbourne, the Duo have been celebrated for their performances of contemporary art music, winning the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Contemporary Masters Award in July 2019.
In the series, Ossicle Duo invite local and international guest musicians to join them for an experimental improv jam in the basement of Hotel Esplanade. Together they’ll explore radical noise production, extended playing techniques, and the strange and intimate connection between some bizarre instrument combinations.
The guests for this Espy Underground Session are Callum G'Froerer and Tilman Robinson.
Callum G’Froerer is an Australian trumpet player active in various improvised and notated musical settings. He has performed in the USA, Italy, UK, Japan, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Taiwan, Germany, and Singapore, and regularly premieres new works by leading international composers. In 2019 he presented The Sculpted Trumpet, an internationally-touring recital of new electro-acoustic works for double-bell trumpet.
He is an active improviser, having released the quintet album ‘City Speaks’ in 2013 on the Listen/Hear Collective label; his quartet album ‘Space Available’, released was released independently in 2015. In 2020 he will release his second quartet album on the Earshift label. He plays in bass/piano/trumpet trio DRUM with Andy Butler and Jonathan Heilbron; and improvising ensemble Phonetic Orchestra.
Tilman Robinson is an Australian composer, producer and sound designer based in Melbourne. He creates electro-acoustic music across a range of genres including classical minimalism, improvised, experimental, electronic and ambient music. Academy trained in the fields of both classical and jazz composition, Tilman’s diverse output focuses on the psychological impact of sound.
“...a colossal cinematic marvel.” Headphone Commute on Deer Heart
“addictive” – Sunday Times, London on Deer Heart
"Tilman mesmerised an audience ... with music that was at once soothing and avant-garde, but never anything other than warmly human" Alex Needham (The Guardian).
Ossicle Duo have individually collaborated with both Tilman and Callum, but have never had the opportunity to work with them together. Both Callum and Tilman perform in a wide variety of experimental collaborative settings.
What to expect in this performance?
Mutated brass instruments meet resonating porcelain, with immersive electronic sound. Ceramic bowls, wine glasses, and other repurposed objects are struck, bowed and scraped to create a textural atmosphere. The mesmerising softer side of the brass section is electronically expanded to envelop the audience.
TIME: 7PM
WHERE: Basement, Hotel Esplanade
COST: Free
The Espy Underground Sessions would not be possible without the support of the City of Port Phillip through the Cultural Development Fund and Hotel Esplanade through the Arts Program.
To find out more about what is coming up in the Espy Arts Program visit https://hotelesplanade.com.au/arts-program/
We acknowledge the lands on which we present this work are the lands of the Yaluk-ut Weelam people of the Kulin Nations. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present and future.
