Listen & tracks

2 of 10 tracks have a preview · 7 works · 68:13

1 We Lose Things Anne Norman 15:40
2 Inside/Outside Dang Kim Hien 10:51
3 Shadows of the War Horse Dang Kim Hien 8:25
Three Musical PoemsLê Tuấn Hùng 3 movements10:32
1. 4 Lotus Pond 5:15
2. 5 Scent of Time 2:41
3. 6 Echoes of an Old Festive Song 2:36
7 Spectre Wang Zheng-Ting 8:45
8 Ethnic Static from Easy Round and Folk Dances Warren Burt 8:28
9 Chinese Whispers Warren Burt 5:32

In the last two decades, Australian composers have steadily created new works for Asian instruments. Competent performers of those instruments in Australia, and closer cultural, social, political and economic ties with Asia, have driven the trend.

The tone colours, gestures and technical range of Asian instruments have widened the palette of Australian contemporary music. The disc gathers composers who reached out to Asian practice and Asian artists settled in Australia who keep their heritage while writing across cultures.

Reviews

an adventurous and fascinating exploration that produces uniquely beguiling soundscapes.

— New Classics, UK

cross-cultural music at its best.

— Ron Payne, Music Teacher Magazine

exceptionally interesting and attractive ... recommended

— Peter Larsen, 3MBS FM Libretto

Artists

Ros Bandt

viola da gamba, renaissance tenor recorder

Ros Bandt is an Australian composer, performer and sound artist whose work joins ancient instruments, environmental sound and live electronics in spatial music, installation and sound sculpture.

Anne Norman

shakuhachi

Anne Norman is a performer, improviser, composer and teacher of shakuhachi based in Melbourne. She works as a freelance artist across music-theatre productions, solo and collaborative recitals, broadcasts and recording.

Wang Zheng-Ting

sheng

Wang Zheng Ting is a composer and master performer of the sheng (Chinese mouth organ). He graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and had performed with many leading Chinese orchestras before migrated to Australia in the late 1980s.

Dang Kim Hien

dan tranh, voice, vietnamese percussion

Dang Kim Hien is a composer and virtuoso performer of both traditional and contemporary Vietnamese music. She taught for fourteen years at the Department of Traditional Music of the Conservatory of Music in Saigon.

Warren Burt

composer

Warren Burt has worked in academia, education and radio, and as a composer, filmmaker, video artist, writer and community-arts organiser. He has produced a large body of work for instruments, electronics, voice, video, theatre, prose and poetry, performed and shown in the USA, Australia, Europe and Japan.

Lê Tuấn Hùng

composer

Lê Tuấn Hùng is a composer, performer and author, specialising in Vietnamese music and the experimental music of contemporary Australia. He has written widely on Vietnamese performing arts and is regarded as an international authority in Vietnamese musicology.