Rosalind Hall - Drift - Cassette

A1. Burden (16:29)
A2. Drift (13:30
B1. Descension (20:35)

(scroll down past audio for more information)

Drift is a free fall album consisting of three compositions invoking a sense of hovering expansion. Deeply spacious yet tightly compacted sound movements create holding patterns that slowly shift and evolve.

Cycles fall in and out of sync while atmospheres envelope time, appearing on the periphery before being subsumed back into space. The compositions utilize modified alto saxophone with spring reverb attachment, synthesizers, percussion, field recordings and electronic processing.

The saxophone is played with an acoustic spring reverberation preparation to produce multiple feedback tones, pitch beating and metallic distortion. Using sampling and pitch shifting techniques, the instrument and its presence of breath act as the glue that binds the pieces.

SIDE A 

A1. Burden (16:29) 

 Burden feels the heat of a hostile time. The hum of orbiting bodies and decomposing atmospheres entranced and repelled by the noise of our time.    

 The saxophone is used as a burden (drone) pipe, underpinning the composition.  Various processed synthesizers form the textural web alongside elongated gongs and torn Velcro.  Treated field recordings of wire fences in Australia, fireworks in Taiwan and cicadas in Japan are also used. 

Burden was premiered at the inaugural Avant Whatever festival in Melbourne 2016. 

 A2. Drift (13:30) 

 Drift is inspired by listening states when free falling in and out of sleep or consciousness and is designed as a piece that exists in the ether, with no real beginning or end.  

 Drift was made using only saxophone, recorded with a spring reverb attachment in resonant spaces to deepen the live reverberation.  The piece plays with the beating caused by close tones and unusual tunings as well as pitch shifting and the reshaping of the attack and release to transform the saxophone tones into blurred, bell-like impressions. 

 SIDE B 

B1. Descension (20:35) 

 Descension captures a sense of revolving sound and space, much like the feeling of helicopters circling above or the way un-localized sound disperses in underground concrete spaces.  

 In Descension, the majority of the beating drones are samples of modified saxophone, re-performed as a keyboard instrument.  The use of shifting resonance to enhance certain harmonics and textures is a key way the drones evolve over time.   

 Descension was made for the Next Wave Festival and Liquid Architecture event Sisters Akousmatica, a city-scale radio orchestra in Melbourne in 2016. 

 Bio: 

 Rosalind Hall is an Australian musician and composer who creates performances, compositions, installations and soundtracks.  Rosalind’s spatial and expansive work explores the physicality of sound through the use of amplification, microtonal movement, beating frequencies and reverberations.  Using acoustic and electronic sound technologies such as modified saxophone, synthesizers, percussion, field recordings and processing software, Rosalind extends her sound sources by sampling and processing to create pieces that invoke a sense of claustrophobic infinity.   

 Rosalind’s compositions have featured at the National Gallery of Victoria (Au), MONA (Au), Science Gallery Melbourne (Au), Whitney Museum of American Art (US), Echigo Tsumari Festival (Jp), Vuorikaiku Sound Gallery (Fi), Instants Chavirés (Fr), LABoral Art Centre (Sp), Kulturdrogerie (At), and Museruole On the Air (It).   

 Rosalind has performed in festivals such as Mona Foma, Melbourne Festival, Liquid Architecture, Next Wave, Avantwhatever Festival, the NOW now, Echigo Tsumari (Jp) and LEM festival (Sp).