Peter Knight & Australian Art Orchestra - Crossed & Recrossed (June 15, 2021)
Crossed & Recrossed presents two works composed by Peter Knight & inspired by mappings of imagined places by iconic Australian novelist, Gerald Murnane, & Italian master, Italo Calvino.
Simultaneously celebrating & deconstructing the tropes of minimalism, Crossed & Recrossed creates a series of musical mirages that form on an endless sonic horizon, reflecting & reimagining the wide open spaces described in Murnane’s iconic novel, The Plains, & the labyrinthine streets of Calvino’s Invisible Cities.
“Peter Knight’s work sets up a post-minimal logic that refracts & disintegrates as we listen. The instrumentation of the chamber jazz orchestra is expanded with the unexpected additions of turntables, a reel-to-reel tape machine & live laptop signal processing. The sounds of acoustic instruments & voices are interwoven with field recordings cut onto vinyl, & are filtered & augmented as Knight plays with our perceptions of what we hear & what we imagine we have heard. Time folds into itself in a very Calvino-esque manner, leaving us with the trace residue of moments half remembered.”
The Plains
Premiered National Forum of Music, Wroclaw Poland
Jazztopad Festival 2018
Finalist ‘Performance of the Year’ APRA/AMC Art Music Awards 2020 for performance at Berlin Jazz Festival 2019
Diomira
Premiered at Metropolis New Music Festival 2016,
Melbourne Recital Centre
Winner Albert H Maggs Composition Prize 2017
Finalist ‘Work of the Year’ APRA/AMC Art Music Awards 2017
Peter Knight – composer
Perpetually curious, composer/trumpeter/sound artist Peter Knight’s practice exists in the spaces between categories, between genres, & between cultures.
As Artistic Director of one of Australia’s leading contemporary music ensembles, the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO), Peter has emerged as a significant international force in contemporary music, initiating commissions, collaborations, & performances with a diverse range of artists including recently: Anthony Braxton (USA), Nicole Lizée (Canada), Amir ElSaffar (USA), & Alvin Lucier (USA). He has also performed his works with the Orchestra at major international festivals with recent highlights including: JazzFest Berlin, London Jazz Festival, MONA FOMA (Tasmania), Jazztopad (Poland), Barunga Festival (NT), & Melbourne Festival.
In addition to his role with the AAO, Peter regularly presents his music as both performer & composer in a range of settings; he also composes for contemporary theatre, film, & creates sound installations.
“Solos here were like songlines, not paving superhighways through a compositional infrastructure but leaving faint footprints in a soundscape that evolved as organically as an ecosystem.” - Downbeat
“Hard to categorise… hauntingly memorable” - The Wire
“If trumpet is an element then Knight is an alchemist” - New York City Jazz Record
1. The Plains
2. Diomira
THE PLAINS
Recorded by Jem Savage May 10/11 2019
Ginger Studios, Melbourne
Mixed by Joe Talia & Peter Knight
Produced by Peter Knight
Mastered & cut by Helmut Erler, D&M, Berlin
Featuring:
Georgie Darvidis – voice
Andrea Keller – piano
Peter Knight – trumpet/electronics
Aviva Endean – bass clarinet
Lizzy Welsh – violin
James Macaulay - trombone
Tilman Robinson – electronics
Jacques Emery – double bass
Simon Barker – drum kit
DIOMIRA
Recording of live performance by AAO for Metropolis New Music Festival May 9 2016 by Jem Savage & ABC Classic FM
Audio system design by Jem Savage
Remixed by Joe Talia & Peter Knight
Produced by Peter Knight
Mastered & cut by Helmut Erler, D&M, Berlin
Featuring:
Gian Slater – voice
Andrea Keller – Nord keyboard & piano
Peter Knight – trumpet/electronics
Tristram Williams – trumpet
Tony Hicks – bass clarinet
Erkki Veltheim – violin
Steve Raegele – guitar
Adrian Sherriff – bass trombone
Mary Rapp – cello
Nicole Lizée – turntables
Vanessa Tomlinson – vibraphone
Joe Talia – Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape machine
Sam Pankhurst – double bass
Jem Savage – audio systems design & live sound
Tamara Saulwick – pre-recorded whispered voice
Remix overdubs:
Katherine Philp – cello
Jacques Emery – double bass
Dan Sheehan – Fender Rhodes piano
