Edwardes Lake, Reservoir 1 – 29 November
by Sandra Fiona Long and Ria Soemardjo
FUSE Darebin presents
Swallow WaLK -Text
Sandra: I usually visit Edwardes lake daily, and during Covid 19 restrictions I have spent even more time there, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day walking to the lake to have a break from my computer at home. I feel very thankful to have a place full of nature close by as I observe the changes which occur with the seasons. Different birds appearing, plants flowering, mushrooms sprouting, frogs singing, broods of baby birds on the land and water. I have seen many other people also enjoying the place during this time, which highlights to me the importance of public spaces and wildlife corridors for human and non-human creatures. I wrote the text for Swallow Walk this year, inspired by watching the swallows in flight and by the way they use the wind currents to manoeuvre themselves so swiftly. When Ria suggested the text would work well as part of an audio lead tour at the lake I felt very excited, as it seemed the perfect way for people to get outdoors, experience the lake and during Covid19 restrictions experience a kind of performance which they can do in their own time.
swallow walk - music
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Ria: Music and sounds for accompanying the Swallow Walk journey were all recorded during isolation, in my home studio. The audio features vocal layers, exploring interlocking parts inspired by frogs (also a feature of many styles of Javanese and Balinese music), and percussion.
Multi-instrumentalist Ron Reeves, kindly loaned his beautiful sonorous Sundanese gongs and added some percussion - the frog like bamboo tubes also from West Java - keprak. A huge learning curve - recording and editing myself, with long term collaborator - tech/musician wiz Pin Rada assisting patiently from Alice Springs. |
See Birdlife Australia for information about the Welcome Swallow.
See Darebin Water for Information about Edwardes Lake wetlands
See Darebin Water for Information about Edwardes Lake wetlands
Swallow Walk Artists
RIA SOEMARDJO - MUSICIAN/COMPOSER/ CO-CREATOR
Ria Soemardjo is a Melbourne based musician with a passion for collaborating with artists across diverse range of genres and artforms. Born in Melbourne, her distinct, haunting vocals and instrumental compositions reflect her Australian/Indonesian cultural heritage. Over the last 10 years, Ria has created and performed music for a wide range of independent contemporary dance, theatre and mixed media projects in Australia and Asia. Her recent projects reflect her interest in engaging audiences in powerful contemporary performance/rituals, often in response to a specific site.
www.riavoice.com
SANDRA FIONA LONG - WRITER/CO-CREATOR
A writer and director across performance, installation and sound based works. Highlights include writer/director of vocal work Hades Fading (Hades Memudar) with Mainteater in Bandung and Melbourne (with composer Ria Soemardjo), writer of ‘Birdcage Thursdays’ Big West Festival, regional Victoria and fortyfivedownstairs, vocal solo ‘Pancake Opus’ La Mama Theatre, co-creator ‘The Temple of the Wind’ installation Coburg Carnivale with Jo Mott (The Wind Crafters), writer of vocal work Duets for Lovers and Dreamers (recipient Ross Trust Script Development award), and creator 'The Beaufort Wind Lounge' 24 hour project, FOLA., directing tri-lingual Happy 1000 1000 Bahagia (Innovation of form award, Melbourne Fringe and Innovative New Form Greenroom nominee) with Mainteater and currently co-creating online Bandung-Melbourne performance project 'Time it is my Friend' and developing her script Portrait of the Boys with Elbow Room theatre company’s script development program.
RON REEVES - MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST/PERFORMER
Ron Reeves is a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, educator and composer with a career spanning over 40 years. Ron has performed throughout Australia, as well as in Asia, Europe and North America. He has worked with a hugely diverse range of musicians and groups including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Iva Davies, Bill Cobham, Trilok Gurtu, Okuta Percussion, Jugala Group (Indonesia), the Karnataka College of Percussion (India), Lebe Olarinjo Masqueraders (Nigeria) and many others. Ron has maintained a strong connection with Indonesia since 1977 and has studied Sundanese, Javanese, Batak and Balinese traditional music, collaborating with many highly respected Indonesian musicians - in traditional, pop and jazz worlds. In Australia Ron has played with Genggong (Indonesian/Balkan fusion), Anything But Roy (modern dance grooves with Indonesian traditional elements) and performs currently with Gamelan DanAnda (Balinese gamelan) in Melbourne. He and Ria Soemardjo travelled to Banyuwangi in East Java in 2016, where they researched the local terbang (frame drum) tradition. This research has influenced their recent collaborations in The Echoe's Project Mapping Melbourne 2017/2018 - site responsive contemporary performance ritual incorporating contemporary dance and music.
JEREMY DULLARD is the founder and President of the Melbourne based Balinese-music organisation, Gamelan DanAnda (GDA). Since 2012 he has acted as teacher and Musical Director to this community orchestra, welcoming participants of all ages, and experience levels, encouraging their growth as performers and composers.Jeremy’s background in Vibraphone improvisation , childhood education on drumkit, and current focus on Gamelan give him a unique approach to combining percussive sounds and creating compositions. His use of traditional Gamelan instruments in this way is enthusiastically supported by all of his Balinese teachers.Despite being an active performer and collaborator in a range of musical styles and settings around Melbourne, Jeremy’s vision for integrating Balinese music into the local scene has always been about experience and inclusion for others. Seeking new ways to expose audiences to real, live, and present music is now Jeremy’s priority as we make our way to a new kind of normal as a society.
Live event features musicians from Darebin's Gamelan DanAnda, led by Jeremy Dullard
Ria Soemardjo is a Melbourne based musician with a passion for collaborating with artists across diverse range of genres and artforms. Born in Melbourne, her distinct, haunting vocals and instrumental compositions reflect her Australian/Indonesian cultural heritage. Over the last 10 years, Ria has created and performed music for a wide range of independent contemporary dance, theatre and mixed media projects in Australia and Asia. Her recent projects reflect her interest in engaging audiences in powerful contemporary performance/rituals, often in response to a specific site.
www.riavoice.com
SANDRA FIONA LONG - WRITER/CO-CREATOR
A writer and director across performance, installation and sound based works. Highlights include writer/director of vocal work Hades Fading (Hades Memudar) with Mainteater in Bandung and Melbourne (with composer Ria Soemardjo), writer of ‘Birdcage Thursdays’ Big West Festival, regional Victoria and fortyfivedownstairs, vocal solo ‘Pancake Opus’ La Mama Theatre, co-creator ‘The Temple of the Wind’ installation Coburg Carnivale with Jo Mott (The Wind Crafters), writer of vocal work Duets for Lovers and Dreamers (recipient Ross Trust Script Development award), and creator 'The Beaufort Wind Lounge' 24 hour project, FOLA., directing tri-lingual Happy 1000 1000 Bahagia (Innovation of form award, Melbourne Fringe and Innovative New Form Greenroom nominee) with Mainteater and currently co-creating online Bandung-Melbourne performance project 'Time it is my Friend' and developing her script Portrait of the Boys with Elbow Room theatre company’s script development program.
RON REEVES - MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST/PERFORMER
Ron Reeves is a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, educator and composer with a career spanning over 40 years. Ron has performed throughout Australia, as well as in Asia, Europe and North America. He has worked with a hugely diverse range of musicians and groups including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Iva Davies, Bill Cobham, Trilok Gurtu, Okuta Percussion, Jugala Group (Indonesia), the Karnataka College of Percussion (India), Lebe Olarinjo Masqueraders (Nigeria) and many others. Ron has maintained a strong connection with Indonesia since 1977 and has studied Sundanese, Javanese, Batak and Balinese traditional music, collaborating with many highly respected Indonesian musicians - in traditional, pop and jazz worlds. In Australia Ron has played with Genggong (Indonesian/Balkan fusion), Anything But Roy (modern dance grooves with Indonesian traditional elements) and performs currently with Gamelan DanAnda (Balinese gamelan) in Melbourne. He and Ria Soemardjo travelled to Banyuwangi in East Java in 2016, where they researched the local terbang (frame drum) tradition. This research has influenced their recent collaborations in The Echoe's Project Mapping Melbourne 2017/2018 - site responsive contemporary performance ritual incorporating contemporary dance and music.
JEREMY DULLARD is the founder and President of the Melbourne based Balinese-music organisation, Gamelan DanAnda (GDA). Since 2012 he has acted as teacher and Musical Director to this community orchestra, welcoming participants of all ages, and experience levels, encouraging their growth as performers and composers.Jeremy’s background in Vibraphone improvisation , childhood education on drumkit, and current focus on Gamelan give him a unique approach to combining percussive sounds and creating compositions. His use of traditional Gamelan instruments in this way is enthusiastically supported by all of his Balinese teachers.Despite being an active performer and collaborator in a range of musical styles and settings around Melbourne, Jeremy’s vision for integrating Balinese music into the local scene has always been about experience and inclusion for others. Seeking new ways to expose audiences to real, live, and present music is now Jeremy’s priority as we make our way to a new kind of normal as a society.
Live event features musicians from Darebin's Gamelan DanAnda, led by Jeremy Dullard
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH FUTURE PRESENTATIONS OF SWALLOW WALK AND THE ARTISTS OTHER PROJECTS