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Welcome to Splitrec where we present music, mainly from Sydney, of an exploratory and spontaneous nature. Go to our shop to find out about or purchase any of our previous 18 releases. Or go to www.myspace.com/splitrec to listen to some music and check out gigs.
We are very proud to announce the release of a double CD - splitrec 19th. You can purchase it immediately by going to our shop.
GERM STUDIES for Guzheng and DX7
Chris Abrahams, DX7
Clare Cooper, Guzheng
198 scratches, itches and ailments.
Germ Studies is the inspired pairing of Sydney pianist Chris Abrahams, and Berlin based Australian harpist Clare Cooper – but if you're expecting a harmonic polyphony of harp and piano you'll be shocked by the alien landscapes that span the 198 tracks of this double disk.
"...the analogy with germs is entirely appropriate - pieces flit to life like mating cells, making skewed, suprise lurches and appearing generally feverish throughout. The interplay between artists is never less than enthralling, their actions raw, revealing, and lovingly recorded, a ceaseless procession of sounds veering off in all directions. Instrumentally its an odd pairing, sure, but seen as an updated form of the violin sonata, in Webern-esque miniature, drawn by post-onkyo minimalists, it begins to make sense." Joshua Meggitt - Cyclic Defrost
Chris Abrahams is perhaps best known for his work with the improvising trio The Necks. He has also released 5 solo albums, 5 albums of songs (with the singer Melanie Oxley), as well as many collaborative projects with artists such as Clayton Thomas, Mike Cooper and Stevie Wishart.
He has composed for the screen and has been nominated for two Australian Film Institute awards for best soundtrack in a feature film. He has also worked in the medium of radio both as producer and as composer, collaborating with sound artist Sherre Delys and the writer Rick Moody amongst others.
A veteran of the Australian improvised music scene, he first began playing the DX7 in the 1980's and has remained a constant explorer of the poetry in this remarkable FM synthesiser. His deeply personal work on the instrument is obvious from the first undulating sweep of Acid Shower.
Clare Cooper is keenly interested in extended vocabularies on the concert harp and the guzheng. As a founder of the NOW now festival and as a profoundly gifted improviser, Clare has had an immense impact on the Sydney music community. Since moving to Berlin in 2007, she has performed across Europe, with many of the worlds most venerated improvisers including work with the John Butcher Octet, Kapital Band 1, The Trondheim Jazz Orchester, and forming the international seven piece HAMMERIVER with Tobias Delius, Werner Dafeldecker, Christof Kurzmann, Tony Buck and Clayton Thomas.
Germ Studies for guzheng and DX7 stands alone in their collective oeuvre.
Moving from five second sound bites to five minute odyssey - the journey that takes you from the first Germ to the 198th has a daring flexibility, combined with captivating detail – as if the collected output of Pierre Schaeffer and Todd Dockstadter were being channelled through the quick fire mind of a chess master.
Not happy with the gargantuan output of 198 distinct pieces, GERM STUDIES goes a step further – presenting an A3 Wall Chart with 198 Germ illustrations, depicted in sinister and candid detail by colleagues and friends, from Otomo Yoshihide to Clare's mum.
More than a collection of improvisations by two imaginative musicians, Germ Studies is a defining document, presented with all the care and attention to detail that these complex, bizarre and beautiful pieces deserve.