The Secret Noise
The Secret Noise is a surreal and fantastical project exploring music and secrecy. Created by composer Damien Ricketson and performed by Ensemble Offspring, the dreamlike work has been inspired by cultural practices that deliberately shield music from public life including forbidden ceremonies, legally extinguished music, covert music-making and private love songs.
LISTEN
The Secret Noise CD is a spacious and immersive experience cast over a single 45 minute track.
Ricketson writes, “I am curious about the personal, the secret, the mysterious. In this noisy world of public utterances, I find myself attentive to private sounds. Stumbling upon inconspicuous otherworlds I relish the heightened consciousness that comes with sensations of sympathy towards situations of strangeness. The Secret Noise is my personal creative meditation on private and secret forms of music-making that have been deliberately shielded from public life. This EP is one of a set of recordings (also including a CD and digital-only downloads) as well as a live performance experience (incorporating music and dance) that collectively constitute The Secret Noise. Peculiar to this recording is the use of newly created whirling instruments – Humming Cups and Chortle Balls (Side A). You are encouraged to listen to Side B with a variety of turntable settings.“
Tracklist
Damien Ricketson – Chortle Bells (2014)
Damien Ricketson – Humming Cups (2014)
Damien Ricketson – Backmask (2014)
Performers
Damien Ricketson (Artistic Director / chortle balls, humming cups, musical saws, turntable, sine tones, Arduino & Juno synths)
Claire Edwardes (Artistic Director / percussion)
Jason Noble (clarinet, bass clarinet)
Katia Molino (spoken word)
Acclaim
“The Secret Noise is an eccentric, but sensitively constructed evening that is part installation, part dance theatre and part concert … Ensemble Offspring are pioneers and with this production they have left the first footprints in the sand of an exciting new territory for Australian performance.” – Limelight
“This collaborative music/dance/theatre work communicates not only the sound of music but also the experience of musical process as reception, memory and fantasy. It’s a critical commentary on our understanding as concert-goers of interpersonal musical exchange. What if ‘classical music’ were individually tailored and responsive at all times?” – RealTime
“a playful and original exploration of gesture, sounds and the ghosts of machines that produce them.” – Sydney Morning Herald
“For all the experimentalism, surreality and abstraction, it’s a throughly engaging, watchable and listenable happening, one that unfolds and unfurls at a gentle pace … Edgy isn’t always assimilable, but the virtuosity of Ensemble Offspring and its esteemed partners, their collective sense of genre-defying adventure, commitment and striving for excellence distinguishes this work as truly cutting-edge. It’s, at once, very now, with more than a hint of tomorrow.” – Syke on Stage
Credits
Recorded and mixed by Bob Scott
Damien would like to thank Narelle Benjamin, Katherine Cogill, Claire Edwardes, Katia Molino, Jason Noble & Bree van Reyk for their creative input in making this project possible. This recording has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Released 2014
