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Life is Brut[if]al (Five Below studio album)

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posted on 2025-01-22, 01:50 authored by ANDREA MEAGHERANDREA MEAGHER, SCOTT MCCONNACHIE, JULIEN WILSONJULIEN WILSON, Jim Keller, STEPHEN MAGNUSSONSTEPHEN MAGNUSSON, SAMUEL ANNINGSAMUEL ANNING, Michael MeagherMichael Meagher, JAMES MCLEAN
Following my self-release album Five Below Live (released 2018), which won the 2019 Australian Jazz Bell Award for Best Australian Jazz Ensemble, I released Life is Brut[if]al (June 2020). The music from the latter album was recorded over 2 days in October 2019 at Oaklands Recording Studios Australia and features special guests Scott McConnachie (soprano and alto saxophone), Julien Wilson (tenor, saxophone and bass clarinet) and Jim Keller (voice), alongside Five Below band members Stephen Magnusson (guitar), Sam Anning (double bass), Mick Meagher (electric bass), James McLean (drums) and myself on piano. The album was recorded and edited by Lachlan Carrick, Melbourne, and mixed and mastered by Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Recording, NYC. Album artwork and design by Luke Fraser/Ahr+. There are 7 compositions featured on the album, all composed and arranged by me, with a total playing time of nearly 69 minutes. Meditations on Light was originally conceived for the Andrea Keller Quartet with No Tango (Germany), and premiered at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival in 2012. The work is in seven parts: I – Ingress, II – Refraction, III – Waves I, IV – Illuminate, V – Waves II, VI – Reflection, VII – Egress; tracing properties of light and rainbows. Here the largely reworked suite exists in its entirety for the first time. Dear John/Joan is based on Compassionately Yours..., a work commissioned by the Adelaide Festival in 2019, and orchestrated for strings, recorder, piano & revox B77. Life is Brut[if]al, Suicidal Snails, Blip, and Youth Unleashed were composed during a concentrated period of research into the music of Arvo Pärt. Despite the unlikely perceptibility of a connection, the impact of Pärt’s magnetism has been profound. The approach to notation and scoring has involved a shift from traditional methods to one-page ‘at a glance’ scores that involve graphic notation elements and verbal notation.

History

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NTRO Output Type

  • Recorded or Rendered Work

NTRO Output Category

  • Recorded or Rendered Work : Performance

Place

Melbourne, Australia

NTRO Publisher

https://andreakeller.bandcamp.com/album/life-is-brut-if-al

End Date

2020-06-26

Medium

CD/digital album

Research Statement

In the field of music, jazz and improvisation, my ensemble Five Below is dedicated to music making that balances improvisation with pre-determined elements. The ensemble interprets my original repertoire, reworking pre-existing material, and developing new compositions. In 2018 I released Five Below Live which was awarded the 2019 Australian Jazz Bell Award for Best Australian Jazz Ensemble. Life is Brut[if]al is the follow up studio album, consisting of new material and guests, and was released on 26 June 2020. The research conducted through the development of Five Below and preparation of new material for Life is Brut[if]al provides significant insight into adapting pre-existing material for new instrumental groupings and incorporating improvisation in notated works. It facilitated the development of new repertoire orchestrated for piano, guitar, double & electric basses, two saxophones, drums, and narration, while inspiring a shift in approach to notation and scoring. This involved a move from traditional methods to one-page ‘at a glance’ scores, using graphic notation elements and verbal notation. The design of a more streamlined approach to communicating information for improvisers illuminates new ways of working. There are 7 works on the album, composed and arranged by me, largely influenced by my research into Arvo Pärt’s music. The methodology of workshopping, recording and reflecting resulted in the creation of a pool of models from which to draw to create an array of arrangement and compositional techniques. Life is Brut[if]al garnered positive attention in feedback, reviews and radio play, including being a PBS album of the week, an episode in the Table 19 podcast, a streamed live performance for the MIJF These Digital Times (and included in their compilation album ‘These Digital Times’ 2020), and included in The Best on Bandcamp: June 2020. It was nominated for Best Jazz Album at the Music Victoria Awards in 2020.

Size or Duration of Work

68 min 47 sec

Affiliation

Andrea Keller Meagher, University of Melbourne

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