Kimberley Echoes The Narli Ensemble 2019 Tour Darwin | Sydney | Bermagui Wagga Wagga | Albury | Bendigo Melbourne | Canberra
Tura acknowledges the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to their elders past, present and emerging.
Welcome From the Chair
From the Artistic Director
It’s with delight that I, on behalf of the Board of Directors of Tura New Music welcome you to a very special performance of Kimberley Echoes as part of our 2019 Tour. This is our 32nd year of being, with our Kimberley Programs starting 18 years ago, driven by the passion and vision of our Founder and Artistic Director Tos Mahoney. So much has been achieved, created and learnt across those years, with so many hidden outcomes but also some bold outward expressions, none the least being Kimberley Echoes. Everyone involved with Tura has great pride in being connected to ambitions that explore new cultural possibilities in a way that is both authentic and relevant to the place and social context in which they happen – Kimberley Echoes epitomises that ambition. Our utmost thanks and congratulations to all the artists, both on this tour and those that have collaborated on the way, the many communities and organisations we have worked with, all the partners, funders, donors and sponsors that have made the project and this tour possible and everyone involved in making it happen. Thankyou for coming to experience this window into a such a vital part of Australia and look forward to you becoming part of the Tura journey.
It has been such a privilege to work together with the artists and communities who have created this ongoing project called Kimberley Echoes. There is so much story behind this ‘program’ – it really is imbued with years of immersion of the part of this country now known as “The Kimberley”. We don’t, for a minute, claim to ‘represent’ Kimberley culture – a notion that doesn’t exist anyway – and we don’t take or misappropriate stories from the many cultures therein. The main story is of the artists’ experience of being there, of living there, and the effect that has had on them. In its own way, Kimberley Echoes has, and is, making its own stories with and in the many communities which it has spent time in over the past 5 years. The ‘program’ – the collaborations, the works – are constantly evolving. It’s a process rather than a ‘product’ and one that is full of two-way learning. At last we are bringing some of the magic that happens in our northern programs to the eastern shores. We really do hope that even if you can’t get there you can savour a taste of what lies beneath.
Tos Mahoney Founder and Artistic Director Gavin Ryan Chair, Tura Board of Directors
Program The result of five years of musical collaboration, Kimberley Echoes is a powerful cross-cultural celebration of Kimberley country and its people. After eighteen years of relationshipbuilding, community experiences and projects across the Kimberley, it’s been an absolute privilege to be part of the growth and development of a suite of engagement and development programs in that country. It’s the building of trust over many years between local individuals, organisations, communities and the many visiting artists involved in all those programs that has allowed for an ever-increasing number of projects of scale to be developed, including Kimberley Echoes, which are now to be shared around Australia and the world for, we hope, many years to come. Kimberley Echoes can’t be taken out of context as a singular entity or production – it is part of a multi-layered set of historical and current collaborations and outcomes that are continually evolving. The key ingredients are the commitment to long-term connections, commitment to not assuming we know or understand, but remain open, to not defining outcomes but to keep facilitating the opportunities to collaborate and connect, no matter what.
For Kimberley Echoes the intent is for audiences to experience, through music and image, what the Narli Ensemble artists experience whilst on country in the Kimberley, collaborating with community. Obviously, for local Kimberley artists Stephen Pigram and Gabriel Nodea, this is their life. Though of course they don’t, for a minute, say they represent ‘Kimberley culture’ – there isn’t such a thing. There are 30 distinct language groups across the region that we now call the Kimberley. So, for non-Kimberley and Kimberley artists alike, Kimberley Echoes is their response to travelling through all those vastly different lands and cultures. Kimberley Echoes covers a vast musical landscape juxtaposing style and genre, reflecting, at least to a point, the complexity of experience across time, country and culture.
Concert Program Darwin Wednesday 20 November Darwin Entertainment Centre Sydney Saturday 23 November Sydney Opera House Bermagui Sunday 24 November Four Winds Concerts Wagga Wagga Monday 25 November Wagga Wagga Civic Centre Albury Tuesday 26 November Albury Entertainment Centre Bendigo Friday 29 November Ulumbarra Theatre Melbourne Saturday 30 November Melbourne Recital Centre Canberra Tuesday 3 December Canberra Theatre Centre
The Narli Ensemble Mark Atkins Didgeridoo/Vocals/Guitar Acknowledged as one of Australia’s finest didgeridoo players, Mark Atkins is also recognised internationally for his collaborative projects with some of the world’s leading composers and musicians. A descendant of Western Australia’s Yamitji people, as well as of Irish/Australian heritage, Mark is known not only for his masterly playing, but also as a storyteller, composer, percussionist, visual artist and instrument maker. Mark has incorporated the didgeridoo sound into some unlikely musical environments, adding its primal pulse to orchestral works, theatrical productions and dance presentation. As a regular collaborator with Philip Glass, Mark co-wrote Voices for didgeridoo and organ with Philip Glass for the inauguration of the newly refurbished Melbourne Town Hall organ, performed for the Sydney and Melbourne seasons of Naqoyqatsi and toured with Glass’ Orion. Mark’s solo work Grungada has toured Australia, France and Hong Kong. He is a founding member of performance ensemble Black Arm Band. Mark is a prolific instrument maker, creating and painting didgeridoos from logs that he collects in the bush near his home in Tamworth, New South Wales. Exhibitions of his traditional and contemporary visual artwork have been shown in Japan, Europe and the United States.
Stephen Pigram
Erkki Veltheim
Guitar/Ukulele/Vocals/Harmonica
Violin
Stephen Pigram is a renowned Indigenous musician from the pearling town of Broome, Western Australia. As a singer/songwriter he has been central to the continuation and development of Broome Creole music – the unique music style that draws on both the traditional Aboriginal music of Broome and the Dampier Peninsula and the many international cultures that have been a part of Broome culture.
Erkki Veltheim (b. 1976 Finland) is an Australian composer and performer. He has been commissioned by the Adelaide Festival, Vivid Festival, Australian Art Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Musica nova Helsinki, and his works have also been performed by groups such as the London Sinfonietta, defunensemble (Finland) and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He composed the orchestral works for Gurrumul’s posthumous album Djarimirri, which won 4 ARIA Awards and the 2018 Australian Music Prize. Other recent projects include co-composer of Diaspora with Robin Fox for Chamber Made (2019 Melbourne Festival) and arranger/Musical Director of ‘The Genius of John Rodgers’ (2019 Queensland Music Festival). He has also created arrangements for artists such as Black Arm Band, Tom E Lewis, Kate Miller-Heidke, Archie Roach, Emily Wurramara and Zulya.
Stephen performs vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, ukulele and dulcimer with his idiosyncratic and poetic lyrics reflecting Kimberley life, culture and country. Stephen is part of folk/rock septet The Pigram Brothers who, along with a string of awards, won the Deadly Award for Album Release of the Year in 2006. Stephen was heavily involved in Broome’s famous musical theatre productions Bran Nu Dae and Corrugation Road and he co-produced, composed for and performed in the Brendan Fletcher directed 2010 movie Mad Bastards with brother Alan and Alex Lloyd. His solo album Wanderer was released in 2013. Stephen has been part of Tura’s Regional and Remote Touring Program since 2005 collaborating with many artists along the way introducing them to Kimberley culture and generously sharing that with so many as part of the program.
Erkki has performed with the Australian Art Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Elision and Ensemble Modern. He is a member of the improvising trio North of North with trumpeter Scott Tinkler and pianist Anthony Pateras, and has a long-standing collaboration with the visual artist Sabina Maselli. He has played with musicians from a wide range of backgrounds, including Chris Abrahams, Bae Il Dong, William Barton, Han Bennink, Cat Power, Brett Dean, Paul Grabowsky, Shane Howard, Mike Patton, Jon Rose, Wadada Leo Smith and Amanda Stewart.
Stephen Magnusson
Tristen Parr
Guitar
Cello
Stephen Magnusson is considered one of Australia’s most accomplished, versatile and distinct musicians with incredible technique and an astoundingly beautiful tone. His hectic schedule shows that he is a delight to work with and someone that has ‘something unique to say’ in the world of new and improvised music.
Tristen Parr is a classically trained and highly versatile acoustic and electric cellist specialising in new music performance and performer integrated sound design for theatre, dance and visual installation. He has toured extensively throughout Australia, Canada, USA, Asia and Europe and has recorded for radio locally, nationally and internationally.
Winner of the Australian Jazz Bell Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, with his quartet MAGNET (with Carl Pannuzzo, Eugene Ball and Sergio Beresovsky), Stephen is currently concentrating on writing for his duo Boundaries with Frank DiSario and trio MAG featuring DiSario and Dave Beck as well as teaching at Monash University. He has worked with many artists including Charlie Haden, Meshell Ndegeocello, Ricki Lee Jones, Sinead O’Connor, John Cale, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Paul Grabowsky, Vince Jones, Katie Noonan, Lisa Young, Christine Sullivan, Michelle Nicole, Martin Breeze, The Assumptions Trio, Megan Washington, Paul Kelly, Jim Black, Mike Nock, Barney McAll, Enrico Rava, Arthur Blythe and many others. Stephen has been involved with Tura’s Regional and Remote Touring Program since 2008 and a founding member of The Narlis.
Tristen is a founding member of Decibel New Music Ensemble whose focus is the commissioning of new electro acoustic works and the development of new graphic score formats and notations, premiering new works by the likes of Marina Rosenfeld, David Toop, Eliane Radigue and Alvin Curran. He is also a founding member of silent film band Viola Dana whose original live scores have been performed around globe. He has been commissioned by the likes of Yirra Yaakin, The Australian Ballet, AIVDT, Louisville and Queensland Ballet, Barking Gecko, Geelong Gallery, The National Maritime Museum, Latrobe Regional Gallery, winning numerous WA Music Industry and Fringe awards and a Helpmann Award nomination for Best Music Direction. Tristen has been involved with Tura’s metropolitan program as a musician since 1999 and the Remote and Regional Touring Program since 2015 and is currently Artistic Program Manager at Tura, programming, advocating and producing in the metropolitan area.
Joe Talia
Tos Mahoney
Percussion
Flute
Joe Talia is an Australian drummer, composer and record producer/engineer based in Tokyo, from where he performs and works around the world.
As well as being Tura’s Artistic Director, Tos Mahoney has a special passion for the Northern Australian Tours that he initiated and has curated over the past 15 years. He has a parallel passion for playing, creating and improvising. Part of the early ’80s improv set in Perth and across Australia, Tos has had a long collaboration with WA composer/improviser/ Ruined Piano aficionado Ross Bolleter resulting in many recordings published as Alone Together and Desert Air.
He first established his reputation as a drummer in contemporary jazz and improvised music fields. In the last few years a great deal of his work has taken place alongside outsider singer-songwriters (such as Ned Collette, Yuko Kono and Francis Plagne), in groups which synthesize his adventurous, exploratory drumming with the demands of song form. Talia also works in the realm of electro-acoustic composition and performance, working with reel-to-reel tape machines and other analogue devices. Following the release of his musique concrete suite in/exterior in 2006, he established a duo with composer James Rushford. In addition to the collaborations above he has performed with Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi, Toshimaru Nakamura, Akira Sakata, Marco Fusinato, Tetuzi Akiyama, Richard Pinhas, John Duncan, Koichi Makigami, Eiko Ishibashi, Thembi Soddell, Anthea Caddy, Sean Baxter, Robbie Avenaim, David Shea, Rand and Holland, The Australian Art Orchestra among others. As a studio engineer, producer and mixer he has worked on records for Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O’Malley, Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke, Fire! and many others.
Across the decades he has also collaborated as a performer with the likes of David Moss, Jon Rose, Jim Denley, Amanda Stewart, Catherine Schieve and many other Australian and international artists. Over the last 30 plus years Tos’s role as Artistic Director, curator and arts advocate has seen the initiation and roll out of a whole raft of projects and programs across Australia. A highlight of all that output is Tura’s annual Touring Program with its unique combinations of artists and connection to community they have created.
Guest Artists Bendigo and Melbourne concerts
Darwin concert
Jimmy Edgar
Bart Willoughby
Vocals
Vocals/percussion
Jimmy Edgar is a Yawuru and Karajarri man of the West Kimberley region in and around Broome, Western Australia. His many talents stretch from the cast of the original Bran Nue Dae stage production to the deep red earth of his traditional country as a culture and heritage advisor passionate in passing on the traditional knowledge of his ancestors. He has accompanied several local Broome bands including one of the first indigenous bands to play to the general public and has written many traditional and contemporary songs. Jimmy is a storyteller not to be unheard.
Bart Willoughby the Pioneering Aboriginal Reggae Artist was a founding member of ‘No Fixed Address’ in the early 80s and ‘Mixed Relations’ in the 90s. Said to be the tip of the spear in the modern indigenous song-line Bart Willoughby forged the path for many. An imitable performer multi-instrumentalist and innovator in his field. In May 2016 he recorded in The Bungle Bungles with Stephen Pigram releasing the Album Resonance in 2017. Bart was a featured artist as part of Tura’s 2017 Echoes Tour in the Kimberley.
Melbourne and Canberra concerts
Sydney and Melbourne concerts
Gabriel Nodea
William Barton
Vocals/percussion
Didgeridoo/vocals
Warmun artist, musician, cultural leader. ‘I paint what I dream. I do contemporary painting about the Dreaming and what I dream, in accordance with the Dreamtime connection and history of my Mother’s people, Gija people.’
Renown composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist William Barton has been playing the didgeridoo for over 20 years. He has forged an international profile in the classical musical world, performing with the Philharmonic Orchestras of London and Berlin and the acclaimed Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra. With his prodigious musicality and the quiet conviction of his Kalkadunga heritage, he has vastly expanded the horizons of the didgeridoo. William has been part of Tura’s remote touring program since 2007 and is the MRC’s artist in residence for 2019.
A long term collaborator with Tura programs, Nodea will tell his Warmun story to new music, set to a projected image of his Warmun story painting.
The Kimberley The Kimberley region is a truly unique and aweinspiring part of Australia. A melting-pot of histories and cultures, the character of this place is not replicated anywhere else on earth. The Kimberley holds immense cultural value for its Traditional Custodians – the songlines here have remained uninterrupted for thousands of years. There are around 30 distinct Aboriginal language groups in the Kimberley. Tura and the Narli Ensemble are privileged to have spent so much time on this country creating Kimberley Echoes.
Tura’s Touring Program Kimberley Communities Kununurra Wyndham Warmun Halls Creek Wangkatjangka Fitzroy Crossing Derby Beagle Bay One Arm Point Djarindjin Lombadina Bidyadanga Broome
Tura Based in Perth, Western Australia, award winning Tura New Music is a producer and an advocate for new music and the sonic arts. Founded in 1987, Tura has a proud history of achievement in initiating cultural development from inner cities to remote communities across Australia. We support, advocate and ignite new music and sound art with a fresh perspective. We provide the means, support and opportunities that enable the relentless pursuit of musical discovery. For the past 17 years, Tura has been touring new music to regional Australia. Tura has built long-lasting relationships with regional, rural and remote communities, creating vital and sustainable programs with workshops, concerts and cultural exchanges.
Patron
People
Wayne Martin AC
Tos Mahoney: Founder and Artistic Director Annalisa Oxenburgh: Executive Director Tristen Parr: Artistic Program Manager Liesbeth Goedhart: Development Erin Bourne: Development Rachel Davison: Social Media
Board Gavin Ryan | Chair Rod Campbell Simon Dawkins Robyn Johnston Justine Lawler Dominique Monteleone Helen Symon Julian Tompkin Heather Zampatti
Tour People Guy Smith: Production Manager Ann Moir: Tour Manager Emma Collison: National PR Chil3: Event branding and design
Contact Tura New Music Ltd Subiaco Arts Centre 180 Hamersley Road Subiaco, Western Australia 6008 info@tura.com.au +61 8 9228 3711
tura.com.au
Thanks Tura New Music thanks the following organisations and individuals for their support of Kimberley Echoes.
Development Years
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Warmun Art Centre Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Mowanjum Arts and Culture Centre Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre Ngnowar Aerwah Aboriginal Corporation Nyamba Buru Yawuru Ltd Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley Shire of Derby West Kimberley Kununurra District High School Wyndham District High School Ngalangangpum School (Warmun) Fitzroy Valley District HIgh School Broome Visitor Centre Sun Pictures Air North
The 2019 Tour Darwin Darwin Entertainment Centre Coryn Huddy Felicity Elliot Sydney Sydney Opera House Nanda/Hobbs Gallery Dance-Rites Rhoda Roberts Letila Mitchel Bermagui Four Winds David Francis Marika Nordquist Lara Crew
Wagga Wagga Shire of Wagga Wagga Roxanne Smith Carissa Campbell Isobel MacCallum Albury Albury Entertainment Centre Aaron McGlynn Vanessa Dwyer Jaclyn Basham Brendan Mayer Tiffany Edwards Bendigo Ulumbarra Theatre Shire Stephen Henderson Philippa Chalke Terrin Conley David Stretch Justine Blacklock Marion Wright Melbourne Melbourne Recital Centre Marshal MacGuire El Chantry Kevin de Zilva Di Rolle Jessica Locke Canberra Canberra Theatre Centre Bruce Carmichael Gill Hugonnet Jem Natividad Dom Northcott
Tura Donors “Tura uses the potent medium of music to bridge the cultural gap between Aboriginal and nonAboriginal Australians. This enhances the cultural and artistic lives of all, and uses the common language of music to bring communities together. I can not encourage you enough to join me in supporting this great endeavour.� Wayne Martin AC QC Patron Tura Regional Program Tura Travellers
Tura Giving Program
The Tura Travellers program offers high level Tura Donors the opportunity to experience the wonders of our annual Touring Program embedded with the touring artists and crew. Seeing the country, meeting the people and hearing the music is a once in a lifetime experience.
Tura thanks its Sound Connections patrons:
Contact development@tura.com.au
Leadership Patrons Irene Lawson and Brendan Kissane Helen Symon & Ian Lulham Visionary Patrons Debra Knight Joan Spiller and Phillip Yetton Katrina Chisholm Anonymous Champion Patrons John and Elizabeth Barnier Carl Erbrich Philip McCann Peter and Ruth McMullin Paul Sokolowski Anonymous
Pioneer Patrons Zelinda Bafile Rod and Kay Campbell Elizabeth Fong Warwick Hemsley Dominique Monteleone Mark and Rose Okeby Melissa Parke Stuart Reid Gavin and Kate Ryan Helen Taylor and Darryl Mack Patrick and Jo Dawkins Norman Dennis Anonymous Innovator Patrons Liesbeth Goedhart Robyn Johnston Lynda McKilligan Anonymous (4) Trusts and Foundations Rowley Foundation Ian Potter Foundation Bux Family Charitable Foundation Feilman Foundation
For more information on supporting Tura: tura.com.au/donation
Tura Partners Tura’s annual programs are supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and the Government of Western Australia through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in association with Lotterywest.
The 2019 Kimberley Echoes Tour is curated and produced by Tura New Music. Tura New Music gratefully acknowledges Government Project Funding Partner
The 2019 Kimberley Echoes Tour is made possible by the support of Playing Australia, the national regional and remote touring funding program of the Australia Council. Major Partners
Supporting Partner
Airline Partner
Presenting Partners
tura.com.au