I got nostalgic this week and posted some photos from the 2001 machine translations tour to The States and Europe onto my flickr site. Mostly pictures of our gig posters pasted on to international objects and the venues we played in. It was a alot of fun as well as way too many sleepless nights sharing floors with the whole smelly band! (Well at least 1 night) They were instructive musical times I will always cherish.
Another 3 days of being surrounded by some of my favorite people. Many a conversation was had through words and melody and rhythm and moments of ecstatic communion though music. It seems we must all work stupidly, and at times dangerously hard, to maintain these cultural practices. Somehow it seems it is against the grain of our society…..somehow it feels we must steal the time to play music, to eat, drink and be merry together in a form and context of our own making, rather than merely as a commercial venture fashioned by someone outside our own community. Thanks to everyone who worked hard and well together to create such a life affirming few days.
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One Second Video of Michael-John Azzopardi at the gorgeous Chapel venue Friday night of festival.
I had the pleasure of seeing Michael-John Azzopardi play 3 sets. He is a positively formidable artist, writer, performer, guitarist and singer. I am blessed that he has recently done some wonderful guitar tracks for one of my recordings, Jack. Go buy his albums here… www.michaelazzopardi.com
We, Mahri Autumn & The Chameleon Collective, played 3 gigs with special guests Pedro Altuna, Annalise Friend, Simon Leamon, Mark Holderkeeping and dancer Jacqueline Pepercamp of Tribal Jewels.
Promising news that I have been short listed for the APRA professional development awards. Hmmm would make 2009 way more exciting and considerably easier…. but.. its affirming just to be short listed at this point. Today i am in the midst of receiving more mixes from Brian Siskind in New York. If successful with the grant, the money would go towards working more with him and a bit of travel. If we survive working through email it would be GREAT to be in the same studio. Its exciting and a very unusual experience. He is doing wonderful work and I can only hope that people will like what we are coming up with. Its challenging developing a process through email and really testing my ability to trust (cause I have too) and not be too much of a control freak (because I can’t control much on the other side of the planet!).
Meanwhile, walking up Mt Keira as many times a week as I can manage makes life make way more sense!
I have recently been making drums out of Recycled Materials for a community project working with people with disabilities. For more information head to my drum blog here.
Finally I have had a couple of days with a choice as to what to do with myself. As much as I love being ensconced in creativity, it is nice to be able to rest for a while! Here are some photos from Imago. Mozaic Dance Company’s 2008 performance.
Photos by Pedro Altuna
First mix is back from Brian Siskind ….. and……… well……. i think its sounds good…… ahhhhhh… somehow I was hoping that after going through someone else’s hands, whose ear I trust and respect, i would be able to hear it with more objectivity…..through someone else’s ear…Alas i still hear it with the brain ticking… analytical ear pumped up to 10.5! Damn… Having said that I really like what he has done with it…
its up on the Myspace www.myspace.com/mahriautumn…
I guess I was also hoping that it would be easy to think about releasing it to the world.. but… alas once again I listen to it and I think… is this what I want this music project to be introduced by? What is it? Its a kinda weird song!… gosh I really I am the sales woman now! I come back to the recurring vision of releasing a double collection in one go… A song collection and an instrumental collection…. It’s something about not wanting the project to be pigeon holed into a genre or framework of any sort… something about wanting to confound people with which box to put it in.. This will be much easier to achieve with 18 pieces rather than 1…. or at least the 9 pieces of the whole song collection… I will be glad when the first release is over and done so it just doesn’t matter any more…meanwhile I have been taking photos… and training for the show IMAGO on Saturday! Looking forward to a lazy summer!
One of my favorite musician/producers based in New York ( of all places could have been Bendigo or Brisbane even?) is doing some mixing of my song recordings. His name is Brian Siskind (aka Fognode) and he is a prodigiously talented artist, musician, producer, photographer. Check out his work here. You can buy an album on Itunes too, just search for Fognode.
It has been a surreal, exciting and challenging process already. Communicating with someone through the web without knowing them is….. weird. Transferring large files is troublesome. The mahri autumn project is very close to my heart and the result of way too much time staring at my own navel. Or intently listening to my own foot? My new term for it is audio narcissism. I guess I have created a web world and a creative entity ‘mahri autumn‘ who dwells there. To have a “real” person respond to that entity and now be tweaking “real time” in the “real world” to that entity on the other side of the planet….. perhaps not strange at all… but definitely challenging my ability to .. let go……… trust…..Hopefully I’ll have something to hear in the next couple of days!!!! Playing live today at Earth Fest in Sydney, rehearsing for IMAGO and sketching out a lighting plot… oh and working on an award application due in on Monday!
Played the Music at The Creek Festival. Was a lovely festival shrouded in mist and peopled by lovely grounded folk who know how to live with a song in their heart and a spring in their step. Thanks to all for a rejuvenating week-end!
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The Motel we stayed at (yes we cheated!). The friendly lady who took care of us informed us that Mick Jagger had stayed there when he was filming Ned Kelly… funny….
Hmmm cant really see them but I promise they are there.. Frolicking in the wind…
This week has brought exciting news that Suraya Hilal will perform for the first time in Australia in May 2008. It will feature Suraya Hilal and Sarah Hamilton as dancers, some live music from me and some gorgeous pre recorded oud pieces from Joseph Tawadros. I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Suraya Hilal and I am sure I will learn an enormous amount. The show will be produced by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. For more information on Hilal Dance see www.hilaldance.co.uk
