Melody Eötvös
Melody Eötvös writes contemporary scores that fuse electronics, poetry and percussion into otherworldly soundscapes, and large-scale piano sonatas that draw on literary and hidden worlds. Her music thrives on collaboration and the charged meeting of live player and fixed media.
On Clairaudient she dominates the programme with five works, including the Counterpoint cycle: skin drums and processed gongs against spoken and buzzing texts, busy tremolo vibraphone set in ambient metal-derived electronics, music-poetry that reviewers call riveting and immersive. The same exploratory ear shapes her Piano Sonata No. 1, two movements titled The Demoiselle d’Ys and Vérité caché, written for Bernadette Harvey’s Sonata Project and placed among major new Australian piano works. Art song appears too, contributing to collections that bind nature, place and voice. Whether scoring percussion with electronica or stretching the solo piano, Eötvös builds sonic environments that repay close listening.
Compositions by Melody Eötvös appear on
Clairaudient
This is percussionist Claire Edwardes’ fifth CD. Clairaudience is clear hearing, or the ability to perceive sound from outside sources, often in the spirit world. Psychics who are clairaudient hear voices, sounds or music that are not audible to the normal ear.
Homegrown
Themes of nature, motherhood, and a profound spiritual connection to place pervade Homegrown — art song by Australian women composers, performed by soprano Rebecca Cassidy and pianist Alex Raineri.