Eastmint’s latest release comes from a duo that approaches their output in a similar vein. Crush Crush is the creative tandem of Evelyn Ida Morris and multi-disciplinary artist Aviva Endean, and their self-titled album is another masterful display of experimental music that leaks through categorical confines.

The record is an exploration of the sounds that can be created using a limited collection of tools, namely Aviva’s clarinet and bass clarinet, which has been expounded upon by Evelyn’s multi-instrumental and production input. What has resulted is something that has transcended limitations despite a conscious implementation of limiting factors. From basic sketches of ideas and skeletal arrangements of bent noise, Crush Crush has built a striking package of work that is filled with life and imagination. Primitive rhythms have been pieced together from disparate parts (see: the opening moments of ‘Shovel And A Cabelcar’ for an example), providing solid footing for Evelyn and Aviva to build upon.

Although relying on a concise array of sounds to work with, Crush Crush has brought forth a lush release that is full of life. Tranquil in parts and dissonant in others, the sway of each movement evokes the untameable character of nature – as if a new gust of wind will send the music in a different direction. This is the sound of two artists pushing their own boundaries and creating something that defies most, if not all, conventions and is a charmingly oblique audio companion for one’s own travels.

Released by Eastmint
Review on Weirdo Wasteland 

Released on SOFA (Norway) 2018

cinder : ember : ashes is Aviva’s first solo release and marks a move towards a more introspective sound. A collection of both composed and improvised recordings, the album offers a selection of liminal, ethereal and elusive resonances. Distinct and refined instrumentations set up a framework of unique sonic environments, which then become a landscape for Aviva’s slowly morphing and contemplative improvisations.

Several tracks explore a veiling of the clarinet, placing another sonic force alongside the instrument which then works together with the clarinet in a symbiotic relationship. In ‘apparition : above’ Aviva uses the skin of the timpani as a resonant chamber which alters, distorts and beats against the tone of the clarinet and amplifies its resonant frequencies into a swirling and glissing halo of sound. ‘vapour : between’ transfigures the tone of the clarinet through a miniature pocket-sized amplifier, the sound of the clarinet distorted and fragmented in a playful and rhythmic trance-like meditation. The umtshingo (harmonic flute) reveals itself in ‘undulations : behind’ through a multitude of subtle effects and feedback, through which the listener may eventually distinguish the beautiful simplicity of this instrument. 

In part, this album took inspiration from the musicologist Andrew Killicks’ concept of ‘holicipation’—a term he coined to describe solo musical practices that are not rehearsals, not practicing for something, but are playing for oneself. The playing is ‘holistic’ in the sense that it constitutes audience, composer and performer, and has no investment in a musical future, but instead finds nourishment in the present. Aviva’s introduction to this term from the musicologist Cara Stacey (who also introduced Aviva to the umtshingo, featured on the album) inspired a refocusing of Aviva’s practice in a more introspective, meditative approach to solo playing, in parallel to her heavily collaborative artistic practices. As it happened, some of these solo explorations eventually developed into pieces that she chose to share with the world, but the process of ‘holicipation’ none the less constituted a vital part of this music’s formation.

Complete Review of cinder : ember : ashes by Joe O’Conner for Loudmouth

There has been palpable buzz around Aviva’s Endean’s work of the last few years, a sense that she is onto something interesting that is getting stronger and stronger. She is one of a number of classically trained Australian artists who have developed improvised and experimental practices in parallel with their work in notated disciplines. Cinder : ember : ashes is Aviva’s first solo recording. Released on the SOFA label, it is an introspective collection of pieces played on clarinet, bass clarinet, umtshingo flute and voice.  Each of seven pieces creates a musical microcosm where particular sonic parameters, instrumental techniques and effects are subjected to subtle and inventive permutations. Aviva coerces sophisticated timbrel palletes from her instruments, using minimal pitch materials to draw attention to resonance, inflection and the folk-like directness of her approach.

Breath and cyclical movement form the locus for improvisation in Burst in black : under. It is the opening track of cinder : ember : ashes and displays Aviva’s mastery of overtones on the bass clarinet in winding repetitions of a motif. She oscillates between low register fundamentals and multiphonic overtones that split apart as the dynamic increases. Occasionally, higher overtones emerge above the texture, parsing it into three registers with distinct timbrel identities. The cleaving of pitches into their component overtones is further inflected by an alternation up and down by an interval of a tone with an almost dance like regularity. It is a hypnotic prelude.

A number of the pieces explore the interface of acoustic instrument with an external sound device, and situate the musical exploration within the particular sonic possibilities of the interaction. Particularly effective is apparition : above, in which the sound of the clarinet activates sympathetic resonances on the skin of a timpani drum. Aviva used the timpani’s tuning pedal to manipulate this resonance, creating delicate glissandos that move independently of the clarinet’s pitch material – a counterpoint of inflection. The timpani also becomes a resonating chamber for the clarinet, creating an almost cathedral-like spatiality in which the presence of the lower and middle registers of the clarinet are amplified but also sound somehow distant. Aviva’s use of the timpani elegantly channels the resonance of the clarinet into fragile, fluctuating harmonic formations.

Vapor : between explores the interaction of clarinet and device for the opposite effect. The clarinet is projected through a pocket-sized amplifier that distorts and compresses the sounds, stripping it of the fullness of its acoustic tone. The sound is lo-fi and electronic, the lovechild of a poor quality synthesiser and virtuoso kazoo. Aviva transforms the limitations of the tiny amplifier into creative potential, using variations in pitch, volume and timbre to push it to the point of distortion.

A song-like quality emerges in the motivic consistency of a number of improvisations, but is nowhere more present than in distant song : afar. This piece combines Aviva’s voice and what I assuming to be the umtshingo, a Zulu flute capable of producing harmonics when overblown. It commences with a pentatonic melody, sung with a combination of oo, ah and eh sounds. In the opening, the oo sounds activate the flute, creating a pulsating pitch centre around which the melody rises and falls. This transitions into a harmonic texture in which the flute sounds strikingly like a medieval portative organ, though with a rugged clashing of overtones. Though I hesitate to ascribe particular influences from other cultures, there appears to be direct references to African folk traditions. There is a simplicity and modesty to this shorter piece that makes it an effective interlude between Aviva’s more esoteric explorations.

To achieve a well rounded and varied collection of short solo pieces is no easy feat for a solo wind player. Aviva has tackled the challenge with considerable imagination, revealing an impressive ability to transform iterative pitch materials into sensitive, sonically intricate formations. I consider solo albums to be an artist’s expression of confidence in their own vision. There is no hiding and no potential to feed on the creativity of others – the stakes are high! If Cinder : ember : ashes is a statement about Aviva’s confidence in her solo concept, then her confidence is well founded.

The video features works from the launch concert of cinder : ember : ashes, at the INLAND concert series. The video was presented as part of nyMusikk’s digital festival «Only Connect: From A Safe Distance» at onlyconnect.no 23-25 April 2020.

This video was made as part of the Australian Art Orchestra’s Solo Series for their 25th Anniversary

#1 AVIVA ENDEAN – clarinet and miniature loudspeaker

It is said that art of the highest order should engage both the mind and body – that it should express both the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The music that Aviva Endean creates does exactly that. It makes you think, and it asks questions of the listener, but it also creates spaces for pure sensual listening.

Aviva’s recently released solo album, cinder: ember: ashes, showcases her inventiveness as an artist. She is a virtuoso clarinettist but she also completely transcends the instrument employing a range of extended techniques, preparations, and textural approaches that far from being ‘novelties’ seem utterly essential, perhaps even inevitable, within the modes of expression she has developed.

In the solo recorded for this series Aviva focuses, for the first half, on conventional approaches to the instrument played with exquisite control and subtlety. The repeated figure with which she begins her solo moves through harmonic shifts, holding a steady pulse and trailing gossamer overtones that are produced with just the breath, fingers, and mouth, but which are so otherworldly that it is hard to believe there is no electronic processing involved. In my conversations with Aviva she refers to the incredible range of possibilities offered by the instrument but says, “I often find it more interesting to focus on a smaller field of possibilities and the subtle and minute ways that I can explore an idea within that limited frame.”

In the second half of her solo recording Aviva uses a contact microphone and a miniature loudspeaker to dip into a contrasting world of breath tones and AM radio-like frequencies that are manipulated with the simple physical movement of lifting the handheld speaker from her leg.

I particularly love that the processes involved in this work are utterly transparent. Gesture and aural outcome are linked in every moment and yet we remain transfixed by some other mysterious process. The mind of the artist. Creativity. Thoughts rendered as sound. Inhalations and exhalations suddenly sculpted into meaning bearing forms.

I asked Aviva what inspires her and what currently drives her relentless inventiveness and creativity:

“I have become very interested in the relationship that is set up between the player and the audience. On the surface, solo playing could seem to be the most egocentric form of music making, yet something of the intimacy, soul-bearing and vulnerability that can occur within the solo form can also make it incredibly generous and inclusive.”

Performance: Aviva Endean
Audio and video producer: Leo Dale
Photography: Sarah Walker
Text: Peter Knight, Artistic Director

The Solo Series program is supported by Creative Victoria.

READ MORE about the Solo Series here: aao.com.au/#/solo-series/

What do you think this place will this place sound like in the future?

In addition to this sound collage, the Sound Capsule contains a vinyl record and an M disc, a sound map, a graphic score made up of kids drawings, instructions to retrace the steps of the sound walk that they did together, photos, and a letter to future humans.

Hear the Sound Collage we made together below or on bandcamp

You can read the letter we wrote to future humans below: 

Hello future humans, 

You have just uncovered a Sound Capsule which was buried here as a gift for you by the kids at Art Play way back in 2021! 

This place, on Wurundjeri land, on the banks of the Birrarung/Yarra River is very special to us, and we’d love to know how it sounds different now than it did way back then when we made this. 

Can you still hear the great bass rumbling of trams going overhead down by the water under Swanston St? Are there still gangs of seagulls squabbling over office worker’s lunch scraps? Does the wind still rustle through the majestic gums up near the Federation Bells? Oh yeah, are the bells still ringing out up there 3 times a day? 

Listening takes time, and it takes attention too. It can be easy to forget to listen to what’s around you, and people who make maps and time capsules almost never include what a place sounded like. We tried to imagine what it would have sounded like here 50 years ago, or 200 years ago before the river was straightened and deepened and the waterfall down stream was flattened out… but it was really hard.  

Sounds are fleeting and fragile, and because they’re hard to pin down and preserve, maybe we don’t take enough care of them. We wanted to make a special place to send some of our sounds into the future, so that you can be transported back to when we were here. It’s almost as cool as time travel…  Wait, have you invented real time travel yet?! 

In the Sound Capsule, there are a few different things for you to discover:

The record: 

On the record there is a Sound Collage made from recordings we made around this place. Recordings of our favourite sounds, the ones we hope you can still hear in the future. 

We put all these sounds together to make a story of this place now. 

We also recorded some questions we wanted to ask you. 

We hope you still have record players… If not, if you run a small piece of metal along the grooves of the vinyl and connect the metal to a cone, you’ll hear our sounds come out.

The M disc and DVD player: 

This special kind of disc is made up of ground up rock and is supposed to be able to last 500 years! There is a digital copy of everything in the Sound Capsule on here. 

The Sound Map:

We made this sound map based on what we can hear when we were walking and listening around Birrarung Marr. Each layer of the sound map represents how close the sounds are to us. The first layer in the close sounds (like bikes riding past, and the gentle lapping of the water) The second layer is the distant sounds (like chatter on the other side of the river bank and trains pulling into the station) and the last layer is our future imagined sounds- how much did we get right? 

A Sound Walk Guide: 

This guide will explain to you how to retrace the steps of the sound walk that we did way back in 2021. Start from the front door of Art Play, or if Art Play isn’t here anymore the coordinates are here: 5XJC+MJ Melbourne, Victoria. 

Photos:

We’ve included photos of the sites that are part of our sound map, and the places where we made the recordings. There are also a few polaroid snaps of the kids who performed with the Letter String Quartet, to celebrate the burial of the Sound Capsule on the 14th of April 2021. 

Graphic Score:

We made a graphic score based on the sounds we heard around here. It is designed to be played by a group of string players and a group of kids playing homemade instruments and percussion . If you want to play it again that would be so cool! 

We made this Sound Capsule as a gift for you- future kids who we can only just imagine right now. We hope you enjoy uncovering what’s inside…

Lots of Love, from the kids at Art Play…

Oska, Nyssa, Rose, Chris, Maverick, Axel, Isla, Abagail, Ada, Henry, Maya, Charlotte, Layla, Elliot, Cooper, Isabella, Zavier, Zach, Clarissa, Ahana, Taylor, Robert, Chris, Coco, Momoka, Evelyn, Lowri, Matilda, Billy, Khepa, Oscar, Henry, Hogan, Evan, Eden, Saskia, Sarah, Olivia, Ava, Eisa, Hazel, Talia, Indah, Freddie, Maverick, Oliver, Elise, Toshihiro, Yoshiharu, Raissa, Ela, Obi, Oliver, Anton, Zayd, Eesa, Gulli, Odessa, and Anouk, our graphic designer Elwyn Murray, and our sound obsessed friends Aviva Endean and Justin Marshall.

Aviva Endean and Justin Marshall share a deep fascination of sound and interactive artworks, focusing on creating spaces for deep listening as well as the playful engagement of the audience. Their debut work for children ‘I Am Hear’ was awarded Best Kids Work at The Melbourne Fringe Festival 2018. 

FURTHER DETAIL ON THE WORK

Audiences move through a labyrinth which is filled with 12 experiences. There are no instructions as to how to interact with the objects, but there are performers who are inside the labyrinth who help guide the play with sound and movement, and the children also often share their knowledge and what they have discovered with their friends and strangers alike. The only rule in the Sonic Labyrinth is that there are no words. You can use you voice in any other way, but without words.

The 12 experiences are all interactive, some are experienced alone, and some can be experienced my many people at the same time.

1. Listening with the soles of your feet: The entrance to the Sonic Labyrinth is a long dark corridor. The floor is covered in surfaces of all different textures. As you walk along them a special set of ‘hear muffs’ drags a tube along the ground allowing you to hear the sound of each different surface, as you feel them with your bare feet.
2. The giant spring drum: Crawl inside, lie down and be immersed in the intergalactic sounds on the spring drum. When you have finished listening, you can play it for your friends.
3. Head in a box: This mysterious object invites you to stick your head inside a geometric mirror box and play with the sound of your voice reflected in a never-ending echo chamber.
4. The Sonic Bridge: Walk the plank! As your get further and further along the narrow beam, you will hear the pitch of the strings rise in trepidation, and feel the vibrations through your feet. Make it all the way along and you can play for the next risk-taker.
5. Goodnight harp: A secret room is revealed, where you find a bed to crawl into. A musician tucks you into bed, puts a special set of ‘hear muffs’ on you and plays a strange lullaby for you on a ‘bone-conduction harp’ that only you can hear.
6. Cymatic Pool: Vibrations make incredible patterns form on the surface of a glowing pool of water. Control what you see and what you hear with interactive light sensors and torches.
7. The Sonic Web: It looks like a laser maze, but if you touch a beam it will make a sound! Try to get through silently, or get stuck in the web playing spacey synthesiser sounds.
8. Voice in a Bucket: Sing into a funny looking tube and your voice will mysteriously emerge from a nearby bucket suspended in the air
9. Underwater listening: Hear the squelch and gurgles of underwater sounds with a special set of ‘hear muffs’ than enable you to hear and feel the hidden sounds beneath the surface.
10. Moon Rock: A hanging dodecahedron shoots out beams of light. When you cover a beam with your hand, you can hear and feel it respond to your touch. See what happens if you can cover all the beams together with your friends.
11. Melodic Winds: A special set of ‘hear muffs’ invites you to hear the sound of wind. Move your head to catch a rift of wind to play a melody that only you can hear.
12. Tingle Fingers: Exit the Labyrinth with one last chance to play all together! Put on a pair of gloves with very long, thin sticks attached to each finger. Step through a pool of bell bowls and making them ring and tinkle all the way along your final part of the journey.

Eastmint’s latest release comes from a duo that approaches their output in a similar vein. Crush Crush is the creative tandem of Evelyn Ida Morris and multi-disciplinary artist Aviva Endean, and their self-titled album is another masterful display of experimental music that leaks through categorical confines.

The record is an exploration of the sounds that can be created using a limited collection of tools, namely Aviva’s clarinet and bass clarinet, which has been expounded upon by Evelyn’s multi-instrumental and production input. What has resulted is something that has transcended limitations despite a conscious implementation of limiting factors. From basic sketches of ideas and skeletal arrangements of bent noise, Crush Crush has built a striking package of work that is filled with life and imagination. Primitive rhythms have been pieced together from disparate parts (see: the opening moments of ‘Shovel And A Cabelcar’ for an example), providing solid footing for Evelyn and Aviva to build upon.

Although relying on a concise array of sounds to work with, Crush Crush has brought forth a lush release that is full of life. Tranquil in parts and dissonant in others, the sway of each movement evokes the untameable character of nature – as if a new gust of wind will send the music in a different direction. This is the sound of two artists pushing their own boundaries and creating something that defies most, if not all, conventions and is a charmingly oblique audio companion for one’s own travels.

Released by Eastmint
Review on Weirdo Wasteland 

PART THREE
1. When odd, skull-shaped grave items were found by archeologists decades ago at an Aztec temple in Mexico, they were assumed to be mere toys or ornaments, and were catalogued and stored in warehouses. However, years later, experts discovered they were in fact ‘death whistles’ that made piercing noises resembling a human scream, which the ancient Aztecs may have used during funeral ceremonies, sacrifices, or during battles to strike fear into their enemies.

2. Counter-Earth is a hypothetical planet always on the other side of the Sun from the Earth,orbiting 180 degrees from our planet.

Photos by Pier Carthew