Bass Instincts
The bass recorder has grown from consort roots into a virtuosic solo voice: deep, earthy, mellow and haunting. Alicia Crossley, one of Australia’s leading recorder players, presents a programme of new Australian works written for the instrument.
Fiona Hill composer
Anne Boyd composer
Alice Chance composer
Lisa Cheney composer
Amanda Cole composer
Jessica Wells composer
It sings with a natural lyricism that can shift without strain into agitated, textural soundscapes. Those qualities shape the commissions gathered on Bass Instincts.
Seven works by leading Australian women composers explore the instrument’s instinctual musicality, range and virtuosity—from percussion duo and wind chimes to live electronics and multi-tracked bass recorder.
Reviews
Not a great deal is heard of the bass recorder. Recorder virtuoso Alicia Crossley has turned conventional recorder techniques upside down, and taken the bass recorder into exciting new territory innovating novel sounds from abrasive to mellow and lingering to punctuated. She has taken this medieval instrument hewn from natural materials combined it with the aesthetics of the 21st century and catapulted it into the future.
Traversing a broad range of stylistic persuasions, this album showcases the incredible musicianship, virtuosity and powerful capacity for storytelling that is one of Australia’s finest artists, Alicia Crossley. Listeners, regardless of their familiarity and comfort levels with new music should take a listen to this wonderful album. It will introduce you to intoxicatingly haunting sonic colours, with each of the featured works exploring in its own way the possibilities of the curious instrument that is the bass recorder.
Nothing base about these cliche-smashing new works for bass recorder. On display throughout this novel, inventive yet accessible program is Crossley’s own extraordinary creativity, imagination, and musicianship. Instinctive, yes. Base, no.
If there can be such a thing as a recorder rockstar, Crossley is that...
Artist
Alicia Crossley
Alicia Crossley is one of Australia’s leading recorder players. She performs repertoire from Renaissance dance tunes to contemporary electro-acoustic works, with a particular interest in the bass recorder.
Tracks
- i. 2:40
- ii. 2:47
- iii. 2:39
- Lost in the Darkness Fiona Hill 9:36
- Alhekulyele Anne Boyd 6:57
- Inhaltations Alice Chance 6:26
- Before You Lisa Cheney 6:07
- Vibration Meditation Amanda Cole 8:06
- The Clockmaker Jessica Wells 6:11
Sylvan Holly Harrison
Performers
- Alicia Crossley · bass recorder, electronics
- Joshua Hill · tracks 1–3
Composers
Anne Boyd
Anne Boyd enjoys a distinguished career as a composer and music educator. A graduate of the University of Sydney (BA Hons in Music, 1967) and the University of York (PhD in composition, 1972), she has shaped Australian musical life through both her writing and her teaching.
Alice Chance
Alice Chance is an Australian composer, conductor, arranger and lyricist. Her works are heard in concert halls from the Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall Angel Place to the Kennedy Centre, and in cathedrals in Sydney, California and New York.
Amanda Cole
Amanda Cole is an Australian mezzo-soprano, composer and arranger. She has performed to critical acclaim in Australia, New Zealand, Austria and Germany.
Lisa Cheney
Lisa Cheney is an Australian composer whose chamber and vocal works often turn on intimate personal themes, including parenthood and the emotional intensity of contemporary family life.
Jessica Wells
Jessica Wells is an Australian composer and producer whose chamber writing for recorder ranges from festive character pieces to lively scores with electronics.
Where to listen
Bass Instincts is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
Bass Instincts is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- MCD 624
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 51 minutes 29 seconds
- Producer
- Jessica Wells
- Recording Engineer
- Ross A’hern
- Mastering Engineer
- Ross A’hern
- Venue
- City Recital Hall, Sydney
- Release date
- 27 Sep 2021
- Musical work
copyright - © 2021 Alicia Crossley
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 2021 Move Records
- Category
- Classical
- Genres
- Contemporary Classical, Experimental
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574062427
Related recordings
Muse
Australian recorder virtuoso Alicia Crossley joins the Acacia Quartet for the premiere recording of six Australian works for lower-voiced recorders and string quartet, drawing on poetry, mythology, historic song and storybook characters.
Duo Blockstix: Works for Percussion and Recorder
Duo Blockstix is a unique Australian ensemble of recorder player Alicia Crossley and percussionist Joshua Hill, formed around the woody tones and sharp articulation of this unusual pairing.
Alchemy
Alicia Crossley, one of Australia’s leading recorder players, presents transcriptions that open classical, romantic, impressionist and contemporary repertoire to tenor and bass recorder.