LIVING COLOURS:
Pacific sounds & Spirit
Bruce Crossman
OVERVIEW
A potent representation of Australian composer Bruce Crossman’s music, LIVING COLOURS is inspired by his strong spirituality and eclectic, multicultural interests. Both overtly and subtly, Crossman’s music seems to embody the expansive geography of Oceania. To this end, the works on the album draw explicitly on the native music of other Asia-Pacific cultures – particularly the Philippines, Korea, and China – and feature vast musical spaces that seem to symbolize the great distances that separate Australia from its neighbors. In his own words, Crossman describes his desire to evoke a “resonance of space” with his music, which arises from a “deep-felt emotion and sensibility linking heaven and earth.”
Crossman’s works are probing and profound, offering listeners an array of unique, primal listening moments. The sense of space that so deeply characterizes his music is epitomized in the opening of Double Resonances, for piano and percussion. The work begins with an echoing, disembodied piano sound – one of a few special timbres Crossman uses in the piece – which is only responded to by the percussion after a few minutes have passed. Double Resonances also represents one way Crossman makes his music eclectic: the use of non-western instruments.
Here, in addition to more conventional items in the percussion battery, Crossman calls for kulintang – a set of pitched gongs originating from the Philippines – and the ching – a type of Korean Samul Nori flat-gong – among other indigenously Asian instruments. Crossman essentially builds a new musical voice with this enhanced set of percussion instruments, which are paired with the piano to explore resonance in this piece.
Both these instruments also appear in the song cycle Gentleness-Suddenness. The composition may be the most overtly spiritual work on the album, as part of its text is from the Bible. Crossman’s writing features a kaleidoscopic array of musical elements, from instrumental noise common to Western avant-garde music to melodic and rhythmic elements of various Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Cantonese traditions.
The work’s vocal part is similarly eclectic, and mixes Biblical verses in English with Chinese texts and other specialized vocal techniques. At points, the intensity of the variegated sonic palette in Gentleness-Suddenness is overwhelming, which shows Crossman’s uniquely constructed music can be as powerful as is can be meditative.
HIGHLIGHTS
A composer with deep spiritual and global interests, the Australia-based Bruce Crossman sets out to create music which “embraces Asian traditional music, free form improvisation and European influenced interval-colour sonority towards a personal Pacific identity”
Crossman’s music features a unique combination of Western avant-garde and indigenous Asian musical sounds, which opens an intriguing field of sonic expression
The composer self-identifies his music as being heavily influenced by Christian, Eastern, and naturalistic spirituality, which manifests equally in works that both do and do not feature a setting of texts
The Sydney Morning Herald praised Crossman’s compositions for their “delicately nuanced sounds, fragile timbres and unforgiving rhythmic complexity”
ALSO ON NAVONA
Gráinne Mulvey
Release Date May 12, 2017
Catalog #: NV6095
TRACK LISTING
Bruce Crossman composer
1 Double Resonances
Claire Edwardes percussion Michael Kieran Harvey piano
2 Not Broken Bruised-Reed
James Cuddeford violin Claire Edwardes percussion
Michael Kieran Harvey piano
3 Gentleness-Suddenness
Lotte Latukefu mezzo-soprano James Cuddeford violin
Claire Edwardes percussion Michael Kieran Harvey piano
4 Where are the Sounds of Joy?
Tristram Williams trumpet Peter Neville percussion
Michael Kieran Harvey piano
CREDITS
Double Resonances
Recorded June 29 2013 at Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney, Australia
Session Producer Stephen Adams and Matt Dewey
Session Engineer Andrew Dixon
(P) 2013 at Campbelltown Arts Centre for ABC Classic FM
Not Broken Bruised-Reed
Recorded June 29 2013 at Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney, Australia
Session Producer Stephen Adams and Matt Dewey
Session Engineer Andrew Dixon
Sound Diffusion Ian Stevenson
(P) 2013 at Campbelltown Arts Centre for ABC Classic FM
Gentleness-Suddenness
Recorded June 29 2013 at Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney, Australia
Session Producer Stephen Adams and Matt Dewey
Session Engineer Andrew Dixon
Sound Diffusion Ian Stevenson
Texts Holy Bible, NIV; Young Lovers’ Edition Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu (play),
Pai Hsien-Yung (producer), Lindy Li Mark (English translation),
Milky Shan Man Cheung (Romanisations)
Sponsors Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown City Council and NSW
Government, ARTS NSW; Australian Federal Government, Australia Council for the Arts (Presentation and Promotion grant, 2013 Contemporary Music Program)
(P) 2013 at Campbelltown Arts Centre for ABC Classic FM
Where are the Sounds of Joy?
Recorded September 26, 2015 at Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Centre, Southbank
in Melbourne, Australia
Session Producer Duncan Yardley
Session Engineers Chris Lawson and Russell Thomson
Texts Young Lovers’ Edition Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu (play),
Pai Hsien-Yung (producer), Lindy Li Mark (English translation and Romanisation)
Sponsors ABC Classic FM Radio; Melbourne Composers League
(P) 2015 at Iwaki Auditorium for ABC Classic FM
All recordings licensed courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Cover Image Luping Zeng - Butterfly Lovers (2016), oil
Executive Producer Bob Lord
Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Brandon MacNeil
Audio Director Jeff LeRoy
Mastering Production Engineer Shaun Michaud, Nate Hunter
Engineering Manager Lucas Paquette
Art & Production Director Brett Picknell
Graphic Design Emily Roulo
Marketing Samantha Granville, John Higgins
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