A historic evening with The NOISE – 7 composers gather to speak

“Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.”

John Cage, 1937

Next week, Sydney based string quartet The NOISE performs in Darlinghurst. The evening promises to be a historic one with 7 contemporary composers present. During the evening they will also workshop a string quartet composed expecially for them by Andrew Ford, part of an anthology of 7 string quartets which The NOISE has commissioned.

Along with music entrepereneurs and record producers Vexations 840, The NOISE has created a major project called Composed Noise. For the first time they are commissioning these composers to write string quartets that contain elements of improvisation and other related techniques, like chance operations. The composers are: Andrew Ford, Rosalind Page, Lyle Chan, Paul Cutlan, Andrew Batt-Rawden, Alex Pozniak and Amanda Cole. The NOISE wants these new string quartets to be a major addition to the quartet repertoire, and to be performed not just by them, but by other players as well, in the future.

All 7 composers will be there on the night talking about their compositions and the creative process that bring both composers and performers beyond the ideas they’re used to and to consider ideas that have never been tried before.

Formed in 2008, The NOISE, plays its own improvised compositions, along with jazz and new music from contemporary classical composers. They have collaborated with George Lentz, Judy Bailey and TaikOz, made recordings and toured the state.

Not limited by definitions, violinists Veronique Serret and Mirabai Peart, along with violist James Eccles and cellist Ollie Miller draw their inspiration from musicians across the spectrum who include Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Stockhausen, Shostakovich and JS Bach, combining the natural sound of their instruments with innovative electronic amplification.

The NOISE needs to raise enough funds to perform and record these works and the performance will also serve as a fundraiser for the project. The recording will be released on the Vexations840 label. To find out who the other composers are and what inspired them to write their pieces, please click here.
Suggested donation $50