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In Weather Volume 1: The Hidden Valley – splitrec 31 LP, CD and DL Released December 2022
Since the late 1980s Jim Denley has been musicking with the Hidden Valley, Budawang Mountains, regularly hanging out there to play/record. This volume, (the first of three eco-musical offerrings), presents audio recordings and drawings co-created over a few wonderful days there, with a band of human artists, critters, stones, trees and energies.
Musicking and musickin (to use Hannah Reardon Smith’s term) are inherently and eternally part of the Hidden Valley, and all musicians, human or non-human, delight in their special listenings/soundings. Weather is ever-changing meteorological flux, which intra-acts with and co-sculpts Budawang rock. Improvisation is kin to this flux — our most context-responsive, sympoietic method of musicking — it too has the power to be part of shaping and transforming. Improvising our listening/sounding in weather we can be relational-to, attuned-to, playful-with, and deeply entangled-in Country. With ecologically attuned listening/sounding skills, we can open to the eternal orchestra of the sonoverse, and express not just human intentions, but allow our soaring voices, as Michel Serres writes, to; “…come from the earth, through the intermediary of the volcano-body. The soul is a life-sized wind instrument.”
With modern portable recording equipment we are gifted these audio phenomena sourced from these playful improvisations, our Gaia songs, this geo-music. The voice of Budawang stone is ancient beyond our knowing, singing an old and novel song.
Recorded in the Hidden Valley, Budawang Mountains, Yuin Nation, between November 22-24, 2021. The Hidden Valley is unceded Aboriginal land. We would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians, the Yuin people, on whose land these recordings are made. We pay respects to elders past, present and future.
Buy now: LP AU 25, CD 15, DL 10.
back, before – Great waitress – splitrec 30 CD and DL. Release Date Sept 16, 2022.
Back before the pandemic, on a Sydney night in June 2018, when Berlin based Magda Mayas (piano) was in Australia, with locals Laura Altman (clarinet and feedback) and Monica Brooks (accordion), Great Waitress came together again. When this trio play there is a magic world created that previously didn’t exist. One can try and analyse their music but it defies any reduction into parts, or individual actors, one can really only speak to the whole, Great Waitress become one, not just with each other, but with the spacetime. The beautiful recording that was made that night makes this wholeness manifest in the audio; back, before is a stunning phenomenon from this truly great improvised music group.
Buy now: CD AU$20.00
submental – 180º – splitrec 29 CD and DL. Release Date July 1, 2019.
180º formed in August 2018 – Nick Ashwood acoustic guitar, Jim Denley bass flute, and Amanda Stewart voice and text.
Amanda and Jim first met in the late 1980s, founding Machine for Making Sense in 1989, as well as performing numerous duos over the years — a long and fruitful association. They’ve always been interested in what their music instinct can learn from language and vice versa.
Nick is from the southern tip of Tasmania. Jim and Nick have been developing a strong association together the last 3 years, despite the distance from Hobart to Sydney, mainly listening, playing and recording in outdoor spaces.
180º has been working on a set of studio recordings, that have become this release, Submental. The word refers to anatomy beneath the chin, mentum – Latin for chin. There are a number of triangular spaces and muscles in the human neck.
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CD AU$20.00Add to PayPal Cart
parasite – Rhys Mottley – splitrec 28 CD and DL
Rhys Mottley crouches above his acoustic guitar bowing, scraping and plucking with numerous and disparate objects to mute, distort, activate and stop.
The body of the instrument is riddled with parasitic attachments such as street sweeper needles, bottle caps, blu tack, drill bits, chopsticks and brackets collected by the artist’s creative eye in day to day life. There are no electrical devices, just gesture exciting objects and strings.
While these gestural techniques are innovative, it’s his unique focus on the three pieces Gut Feeling, Throat Feeling and Ear Feeling that we at Splitrec find so compelling. With mics close on either side, every detail of the resonating guitar and distant traffic, trucks, cars and planes of Tempe Jets and surrounds are revealed and listened to with forensic patience.
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CD AU$20.00Add to PayPal Cart
Mungo – Splinter Orchestra – splitrec 27 3 x CD and DL
“There are periods of overwhelming beauty here, but more often I feel like this music accompanies you. You can be in it, be with it. It’s not demanding but it is as engaging as you let it be.” Joseph Cummings in Loudmouth
The 3 CD set, ‘
MUNGO’, their first release in 10 years, (since splitrec 17) presents an argument for a creative collective, sensitive to time/space — one that treats all the participants, be they performers, other species, or the wind, as equal players.
Over the previous two years, they’d honed specific strategies involving motion that manifest differently wherever and whenever they are played out. These procedures were taken to the dry lakebed in far west NSW.
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CDs AU$30.00Add to PayPal Cart
Avocado – Peter Farrar – splitrec 26 LP, CD and DL
As listeners to the experimental, improvised, Jazz, Ethiopian and style-free music communities in Sydney will testify, Peter Farrar has been doing astonishing solos the last few years.
He’s been honing techniques that use various extensions on his alto sax, (mainly plastic bags and bottles as mutes). Instead of an instrumental line, he produces startling layers of distorted tones and overtones with pervasive, insistent, generative rhythms. This is pioneering research — he has re-imagined the instrument.
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LP AU$25.00Add to PayPal Cart
CD AU$20.00Add to PayPal Cart
Switches and Hose – Dale Gorfinkel – splitrec 25 LP, CD and DL
Dale Gorfinkel is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, instrument creator and installation artist. Dale’s work aims to reflect an awareness of the dynamic nature of culture & the value of listening as a mode of knowing people & places. He is interested in finding fresh ways of presenting and making music, bringing creative communities together & shifting perceived boundaries of scenes, styles & artforms.
His first solo release reflects this diversity of interests and approaches. He has chosen 4 pieces, each radically different.
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LP AU$25.00Add to PayPal Cart
CD AU$20.00Add to PayPal Cart
Truancy – Jim Denley, Cor Fuhler – splitrec 24 LP, CD and DL
Jim Denley and Dutch musician Cor Fuhler first met at the Taklos Festival in Switzerland in the early 1990s and Cor’s frequent visits to Australia over the years gave them the opportunity to occasionally play. In 2012 Cor moved to Sydney, allowing them to ramp up the duo — this is their first release together.
Over 7 weeks at the end of 2013 they recorded weekly in Cor’s backyard studio, eventually choosing take 9 and 12, titling them Skive and Wag.
Their imaginative preparations and inventions mean that listeners will find it hard to believe they are playing saxophone and piano, and at times, be unable to distinguish between the two players. They don’t accept clichés about instrumental notions and fashionable schools (new and old).
But Truancy isn’t just about opting out, rather, time away from institutions has been devoted to generating new sounds and structures.
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LP AU$25.00Add to PayPal Cart
CD AU$20.00Add to PayPal Cart
Tokyo 1972 – TELETOPA – splitrec CD23 and LP23
Geoffrey Collins – flute, percussion and electronics
Roger Frampton – sax, percussion and electronics
Peter Evans – percussion and electronics
David Ahern – violin, percussion and electronics.
In the early 1970’s, Sydney had a group at the forefront of musical experimentation with a unique take on free improvisation.
The discovery of a box of lost tapes hidden away in a garage for over four decades has led to the first ever release of substantial recordings from Teletopa – Tokyo 1972. The release includes an original Manifesto by Ahern about the group and a potted history of the group by Geoffrey Barnard.
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LP (x3) AU$50.00Add to PayPal Cart
CD (x2) AU$35.00Add to PayPal Cart
lucid – Great Waitress – splitrec CD22
Magda Mayas – piano, Laura Altman – clarinet, Monica Brooks – accordion
“…blurring of instrumental identities in a collective exploration of timbral and textural possibilities…”
“…music – or rather, I’d argue, sound-art – that results from careful, minute attention to production of individual sounds…” The Wire, October 2011 – Andy Hamilton
“If spiders have musical dreams while spinning webs, they might sound like the fragile wisps of sound created by Great Waitress.”
Sydney Morning Herald, December 9, 2011 – John Shand
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CD AU$20.00Add to PayPal Cart
a closely woven fabrik – West Head Project – splitrec CD21
Dale Gorfinkel – prepared trumpet, tree roots + automated sonic contraptions, Jim Denley – bamboo + czech school flutes, balloons, alto sax, Monica Brooks – accordion, Anthony Magen – recording.
For a number of years as West Head Project, we’ve been making site specific sound events and recordings at outdoor locations – initially these were held at West Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. This disc documents our work on Maria Island, off the east coast of Tasmania, where we created performances for ’10 Days on the Island Festival’ and Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania.
“Careful listening confirms the musicians’ sympathetic interaction with the captured natural sound. This also substantiates why the overall session works as well ecologically as musically.” Ken Waxman – Jazz Word
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CD AU$20.00Add to PayPal Cart
c a l i b r a t e d – b l i p – splitrec CD20
Jim Denley – alto sax, bass flute, dismantled bass flute, prepared flute, Czech school flute, bamboo flute and balloons (although sometimes it’s just easier to say wind instruments) and Mike Majkowski – double bass pitch pipes and objects.
Mike Majkowski and Jim Denley formed b l i p in 2008. They’ve been members of the Splinter Orchestra (splitrec 17) since 2002. c a l i b r a t e d was recorded one afternoon in Narrabeen, Sydney, 24th August 2010 from 2pm – 4pm.
“calibrated, while exploring sound material richly and profoundly, is nevertheless musical, sensitive, intense, strong and compelling. Recommended!” – Improv Sphere
“It is impossible not to appreciate that the music-making undertaken on calibrated is part of a rich and ongoing conversation between two of Australia’s most engaging improv artists.”
Gail Priest – RealTime
Buy now:
CD AU$20.00
GERM STUDIES for Guzheng and DX7 – Chris Abrahams, DX7, Clare Cooper, Guzheng – splitrec CD19 double CD + poster
From the 1st track on disc 1, Acid Shower – 0.16, to the last track on disc 2, Angry Climax – 0.36, small scale is rigorously adhered to, but the end result is a major statement over the 198 tracks. It’s as if each of the microorganisms has all the information to develop into bigger organisms – there are some fecund moments, but the players keep moving on. In the end though, the resulting macrostructure of the 2 CDs, is formally unique.
“…the analogy with germs is entirely appropriate – pieces flit to life like mating cells, making skewed, surprise 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
Buy now:
CD (x2) AU$25.00
Sonic Systems Laboratory – splitrec CD18
Dale Gorfinkel and Robbie Avenaim with radical approaches to the vibraphone. Interview
Their instruments are microtonally prepared and activated by machines instead of the usual mallets, resulting in a variety of unusual textures. Their music is like waking up to an alarm clock, only in reverse; the hypnotic quality of the sound pulling the listener into a dream world. Alarm bells give way to scenes of old children’s toys, followed by distant propellers and, finally, cats purring. By the end, Avenaim and Gorfinkel are literally shaking the sound from their instruments.
“Whatever preconceptions you may have about what a vibraphone should sound like, cast them aside now…a beautifully crafted 32 minute improvisation.” Brian Marley – Wire
Buy now:
CD AU$20.00
The Splinter Orchestra – splitrec CD17
In late 2006 a 24 piece Splinter recorded at studio 301 in Sydney a new set of improvisations and procedural compositions, brilliantly recorded by Richard Belkner.
“The result is eerie and weirdly beautiful; more diaphanous then dense, which is a tribute to both the subtlety of the interaction and the sophistication of the recording. Remarkable.” John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald
“A CD whose subtle progression rewards careful listening“– Ken Waxman, In MusicWorks
Available now on Bandcamp
Buy now:
CD AU$20.00
Through Fire, Crevice + the Hidden Valley – Jim Denley: altosax – splitrec CD16
From the 18th of May 2006, I spent 15 days armed with sax, camera, audio recorders, food and a solar recharger in the Budawang Mountains, a wilderness area in the Morton National Park, South West of Nowra on the east coast of Australia. These mountains are full of dramatic and rugged rock formations, caves, crevices and a hidden valley – it’s a wonderland of natural acoustics. Presumably people have been making music in these spaces for thousands of years, but it’s almost certain sax hasn’t been heard there before. JD.
“This is music at it’s most primal, enhancing the beauty of creation.”
John Shand – Sydney Morning Herald
This CD won an Honorary Mention in the Digital Music catagory of the Prix Ars Electronica, 2007.
Available now on Bandcamp
Buy now:
CD AU$20.00
Gleanings – Scott Sinclair: guitar, objects Jim Denley: altosax. voice – splitrec CD15
Recorded at the UTS studios in Sydney May 2005 by Inge Olmheim, this duo finds Sinclair (Botborg) and Denley in a sprawling noisy, and much picked over area of activity – the guitar sax duo – but managing to sustain themselves with some overlooked discoveries.
“I could sit and listen to Denley’s slow intake of air for hours on end. The sound is that exciting. Don’t mistake this duo for a noise fest. It’s as far from that as night is from day. Rather, these two corral the tiniest sounds from the most common of instruments imaginable.” Tom Sekowski – Gazeta
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
available now on Bandcamp
Findings – Peter Blamey: electronics + Jim Denley: alto – splitrec CD14
“Together they produce four pieces of music, which are simply great. Beyond pure improvisation, this incorporates musique concrete, electronic music and electro-acoustics.” Frans de Ward – Vital Weekly Recorded March 2006 Sydney
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/set/7.htm
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
hydration – Jim Denley – splitrec CDR5
A series of explorations using altosax to journey to the centre of the body.
“As an introduction to a remarkable talent, this is spot on.” Brian Morton – Wire
Recorded Sydney June 2005.
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
Creoles – Clayton Thomas: double bass Jim Denley: alto – splitrec CDR7
“Encompassing mini reed squeaks and heavy sul ponticello and sul tasto string pulses, the concentrated rumble of buzzed bass lines is interrupted time and again by concussive tongue-fluttering, key percussion, and lip and tongue osculation. These split tones almost seem to vibrate from the gooseneck itself rather than the mouthpiece or reed and eventually, Thomas’ barrage of shuffled spiccato lines turn to cavern-deep-pitched tremolo vibrations spiced occasionally with Denley’s distant wah-wahs.” ken waxman
Recorded Sydney June 2005.
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
Distinctions – Axel Doerner: trumpet, Jim Denley: wind instruments – splitrec CDR6
“Distinctions has a moody involvement that pulls you ever inward towards the speakers to catch every slight inflection and every moment of not-quite silence. I switched to headphones for a second listen, and bugger me, there’s a whole other spectrum of sound buried away in there. It’s an astonishing record, one that deserves the widest possible distribution.” Brian Morton – The Wire. “Music reconceived, still generating surprises and still exciting.” Julian Crowley – The Wire
Recorded Sydney Feb 2004.
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
A walk in the palm forest with my sax – Jim Denley: alto + recording – splitrec CDR8 (mini cdr)
‘Tape and Paint Game’ is one of a terrific batch of recent releases by Denley on Split. My favourite is ‘A Walk in the Palm Forest With My Saxophone’- absolutely fascinating”. Brian Marley, Bagatellen
Binaural mikes were attached to my knees and I then walked and played in a Palm forest on the Queensland coast, near Kepple Sands. We were in the middle of a drought, so the fallen fronds were brittle and dry. My mother had recently died and this became my elegy to her. JD. Recorded Nov 2004 Kepple Sands. “…wonderful…” Wire
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
Tape and Paint Game – Joel Stern: laptop + field recordings, Jim Denley: alto + field recordings – splitrec CDR9
“The whole things sounds surprisingly electronic, with the saxophone playing usually a sustained note, rather than free-form melodies. The whole encounter of eight tracks breaths a very vibrant and lively atmosphere. All together a most enjoyable release, a well-done mixture of improvisation and composition.” Frans de Ward – Vital
Recorded Melbourne and Brisbane 2003/04.
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
Tibooburra – Jim Denley: flutes + recordings, Stevie Wishart: hurdy gurdy, violin + recordings – splitrec CD8
The tiny town of Tibooburra (place amongst the stones) in far west N.S.W, was the settings for collaboration between myself, Stevie Wishart and Heidrun Loehr (photography). The desert is alive with sounds, both “natural” and man made. Jim Denley
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
first contact – Jim Denley – splitrec CDR10
In the very early C21st many musicians were struggling to find a relevance for instrumentalism in the creation of the new. Jim Denley made a series of programs for ABC radio that experimented with wind playing and ways of recording. He was joined in this search by one of the most brilliant engineers at the ABC, John Jacobs – together they worked on a number of programs together.
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
consciousness – Machine for Making Sense + guests: Tony Buck, Greg Kingston, Carolyn Connors – splitrec CD7
“Though mfms sounds like a single complex organism, it is not synchronised like a shoal of darting fish. Within the group the degrees of independence, dependence and interdependence are hard to fathom – much like human consciousness itself.” Brian Marley – Avant
In 1996 mfms took over the ABC radio studios in Sydney for a 4 hr multi-stage event that no one person could have seen or heard in its entirety. The audience was free to wander between the studios, control rooms and the massive Atrium where machinations were continuous for the 4 hrs. From this raw ‘fester’ comes the ‘Consciousness’ edit. The second piece on the CD, Collective is another live recording from the Performance Space, Sydney with the group paired back to its essential quartet.
Featuring: Chris Mann, Amanda Stewart, Jim Denley, Rik Rue, Stevie Wishart with Greg Kingston, Carolyn Connors and Tony Buck.
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
dissect the body – Machine for Making Sense + guests: Trey Spruance Jamie Ludbrook, Satsuki Odamura – splitrec CD6
“Where does music come from? What does it mean? In a time of overrated technological parading here comes a group of Australians set up in a Machine for Making Sense who bring us some startling answers and plunge us into the heart of the creative collective act. Rarely has improvised music been able to offer such a high degree of renewal.” Jacques Oger, France Jazz 98
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
I / T – Amanda Stewart – voice and text – here and there books + splitrec CD5
“This one has been years in the making. It’s an elegant CD and Book set of Amanda Stewart‘s solo work in sound, visual, concrete, political, and text-based poetry, covering a period of 16 years from 1981 – 1997. Those who don’t know her work will be amazed to discover a major voice in Australian composition. This CD/Book is clearly in the must-have category, both from the musical and literary points of view.” Warren Burt -Experimental Musical Instruments
Buy now:
CD & Book AU$35.00
talk is cheap – Machine for Making Sense – splitrec CD4 1997
“this Machine spits out beautiful noise first and foremost, mimicking the world, but distilling its languages.” – Keith Gallasch Real Time
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
sonic hieroglyphs from the night continent – Jim Denley: alto sax, flute + mini disks – splitrec CD3 1997
“..traversing as complete and encyclopaedic a range of extended wind techniques as one could wish for, here the techniques are used in the service of a poetic vision of landscape that both refers to the ongoing engagement with landscape that has been a constant feature of Australian art for about 20,000 years, and also deals with contemporary ideas of structure in refreshing and original way.” Warren Burt – Experimental Musical Instruments
Buy now:
CD AU$15.00
If it’s not on it’s not on – Mind Body Split – splitrec LP01
Splitrec was set up in 1989 to release this LP.
“A supergroup of local experimental musicians, Mind/Body/Split sounded like nothing else I’ve heard before or since. The lineup gives some indication of what they were doing: Sherre Delys on vocals and text, Jim Denley on wind instruments, the late Jamie Fielding on electronic keyboards, Rik Rue on tape manipulations and Kimmo Vennonen on electronic manipulations.
Each track is a brilliant conceptual piece, whether dealing with gender politics (Mr Man, In a Certain Position), religion (Save You’ll Save), language (Poetry Full of Holes) or the paranoid politics of the day (The Walls Have Ears, Particles). For experimental music, it’s also very accessible, with a playful sense of adventure and fun, such as on the track Intermission, which features a cheesy organ playing while glasses are smashed. This album is a great introduction to the local experimental music scene of the time.” Shannon O’Neill writing in Cyclic Defrost
SOLD OUT. But available on Bandcamp.
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