Above: Featured performer and curator of this programme, bassist Will Hansen. Photo credit: Jared Underwood. Featured image- Graphic design by Luke Adrian Moseley featuring in concert artwork and the attractive downloadable programme.
Kammerklang, the chamber music production company which has kept its focus keen on to aiming to ‘create, curate, and recontextualise Australian artistic creation’ has achieved this many times over since the group’s inception in 2009.
Artistic Director, composer Cameron Lam and Artistic Associate, performer, new music advocate and recorder specialist Alicia Crossley have ensured that the latest concert resonated with such goals . It offered up exquisite, new local music in an effective space- this time in the salubrious Church St Studios, with a formidable ambience and filled with a visual buffet of quirky musical memorabilia and bespoke decoration.
The newest concert concept from Kammerklang is part of the series and concept titled ‘A Hidden Curiosity’. Through concerts in Sydney and well as Melbourne, we are helped to absorb ingenuities within an all-Australian programme of works almost hidden since premiere. This true treasure chest of colour and movement, contour and character showcases the depth of expressing and energies to be drawn upon for this part of the series’ focus instrument of double bass.
Ripples and echoes, first concert for double bass in this part of the project, was curated by emerging virtuoso, teacher and practitioner across many genres, Will Hansen. It shows his keen eye for contrast and promotion of the double bass’ capabilities. With candid, informed commentary, a careful attention to juxtaposition of new or contrasting styles and consistently exciting playing he drew us into nine distinct sound worlds from nine different Australian composers.
Composers hopeful for reiterating the success and exposure from past premieres were allowed a live follow-up performance of works submitted. When programming his selection from submitted works, Hansen showed the wide range of the light and shade plus the myriad of shapely suitabilities his instrument is capable of.
Above: (l to r): William Varga, Will Hansen, Keyna Wilkins, Cameron Lam, Zoe Gougousidis and Naomi Dodd. Some of the composers to successfully submit works chosen by Hansen for his curation of this programme were in attendance at this event. Photo credit: Jared Underwood.
The double bass line in Hansen’s lithe outpouring capably realised the orchestra’s low string voice via an easy marriage with electronic tracks, as in Mark Oliveiro’s atmospheric Lo-Fi Déjà vu and Cameron Lam’s Before We Leave.
A joyous celebration of natural characters or processes was included via Naomi Dodds’ soundtrack-worthy The Cockatoo, plus Elissa Goodrich’s Moth Returns to Mountain Ash. Colour, character and an innately Australian penchant for tracing natural elements in music thrilled the listener as they continued to highlight the adept and varied solo excellence of the bass in solo mode.
The progressive composer Keyna Wilkins’ Dunes of Pluto orbits about us for a much-needed re-performance since Elsen Price premiered its slick and delicate topography so well suited to the instrument in 2018. This composer, sharing an enthusiasm for astronomy with the performer, showed a programmatic clarity for the future with signature stellar, sensitive mapping.
Zoe Gougousidis’ elevated groove in her brief bounce of a work, The Undercurrent, explored the low register agility of Hansen’s custom-built bass by local luthier Matthew Tucker. It barked bodly and sang eloquently from its Australian-crafted, local-timbered teak. As when the subtle joys Hansen’s clear bravura were betrayed in the works representing an iconic Australian bird or the plight of bogong moths, the shapes and party-within-a-register feel in Zoe’s piece made it a worthy inclusion in the programmed flow.
The traditional concepts of double bass character, identity, ability and concentional role were effectively explored and challenged here. Any perceived, cliche movement was obliterated by sophistication in this programme. Ripples and Echoes included William Varga’s Micro-Sonata No 2. Here the instrument and player proved that as well as the piano, the never-bumbling bass could be an erudite mouthpiece for the composer’s forward-looking deconstruction and experimentation on sonata form for our nuanced now.
Above : Will Hansen delivered candid and entertaining commentary to support his curation choices for this Church St Studio concert. Photo credit: Jared Underwood.
World music got a look-in amongst Hansen’s selected dances for the bass also. His choice of Declan Postlethwaite’s Samba in the Souk, where Arabic and Latin flavours plus a host of difficult string effects shone in the mix, showed even more facets to the double bass’ communicative skill set.
Synaesthetic artistry and collaborative excellence were also displayed via Cameron Lam’s Palette Pieces, in which Will Hansen selected pigments he resonated with.to be identified musically. The composer created musical palette washes for each, with highly original material to match the hues. These were then morphed into the interactive architecture for the sound-painting Before We Leave, afforded fine differentiation in spirit and colour both in Lam’s ingenuity and the creativity on this bassist’s rendering.
The lush smorgasbord of Ripples and Echoes celebrated the talents of emerging composers. It offered the assembled audience, star-studded with bassists of all backgrounds and training, substantial recent works which should find a secure place in the performance canon. Hansen’s developing performance identity and enviable technique brought the journey to a breathtaking close with a stunning and layered work- the emotional and virtuosic leviathan that is the very personal piece titled Joyce by Stephen Hornby.
We look forward to future curations, collaborations and concert appearances from this promising bassist and from Kammerklang events. The clever and entertaining ‘Hidden Curiosity’ series offers us more double bass music submitted for artist-curation in 2025, this time by Melbourne’s Miranda Hill. This concert- to be titled From The Deep will see the series moving to viola, which also promises to entertain and enlighten.
