Hive + 100 Million Nights Program

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TYONDAI BRAXTON

HIVE+ 100 MILLION NIGHTS CANYONS & DANIEL BOYD

USA / AUSTRALIA

TYONDAI BRAXTON

HIVE USA

CONCERT HALL SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 21JANUARY

CREDITS

ABOUT HIVE

MUSIC Tyondai Braxton

HIVE is a multimedia project; part installation and part ensemble, utilisng modular synthesis, sound design and acoustic instruments in live performance. This introduces a new element to Tyondai Braxton’s work: a visual narrative counterpart and the creation of environments.

MODULAR SYNTHESISER, SAMPLES, LAPTOP Tyondai Braxton MODULAR SYNTHESISER Ben Vida PERCUSSION Yuri Yamashita Chris Thompson Matt Smallcomb PLATFORM DESIGN Uffe Surland Van Tams LIGHTING DESIGN Sarah Frankel

Braxton enlisted the help of Danish architect and carpenter Uffe Surland Van Tams to design and fabricate five massive, custom-built wooden platforms. Braxton, Ben Vida (PAN records) and three percussionists, Yuri Yamashita, Chris Thompson and Matt Smallcomb, will each be perched atop their own individual HIVE pod.

The project was commissioned by Works & Process and premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in spring 2013.

TYONDAI BRAXTON Tyondai Braxton is an American composer and electronic musician. He has been writing and performing music under his own name and collaboratively under various group titles since the mid-90s. He studied music composition at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut with Robert Carl, Ingram Marshall and Ken Steen. His music incorporates electronic and modern orchestral elements, ranging from solo pieces to music for large orchestras and electronics.

Tyondai is also the former frontman of experimental rock band Battles.

Braxton has been commissioned to write pieces for ensembles such as The Bang on a Can All Stars, Kronos Quartet and Alarm Will Sound. He has performed his critically acclaimed work Central Market with world renowned orchestras such as The London Sinfonietta, The Wordless Music Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and The Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has collaborated with legendary composer Philip Glass ­– performing as a duo for the festival series All Tomorrow’s Parties, as well as remixing Glass’ work for the REWORK album produced by Beck.

Braxton is currently working on recording material for a new album.

CANYONS & DANIEL BOYD

100 MILLION NIGHTS AUSTRALIA

CONCERT HALL SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 21JANUARY CONCEPT, MUSIC & VISUALS Ryan Grieve Leo Thomson Daniel Boyd VISUAL TECHNICIAN, LIGHTING ADVISOR William Mansfield ELECTRONICS, BASS Thomas McAlister DRUMS, PERCUSSION Julian Sudek KEYBOARDS, ELECTRONICS Leo Thomson GUITAR, PERCUSSION, DRUMS Ryan Grieve SOUND ENGINEER Tim Whitten Special Thanks to the Australia Council For The Arts for initial funding and support.

ABOUT 100 MILLION NIGHTS Acclaimed musical duo Canyons have collaborated with visual artist Daniel Boyd to create 100 Million Nights: an original musical score performed live, featuring a major new three-panel video installation work by Daniel Boyd as the stage backdrop.

Through collaborating with artist Daniel Boyd, Canyons have taken a different approach to writing and creating music.

As with history, some events are perfectly choreographed while others manifest spontaneously – the musical element of this project will at times be perfectly rehearsed and in sync with the visual element, and at others spontaneously improvised to reflect this notion of history and the passing of time. Instruments and effects are chosen on the basis of their sonic quality and ability to be used in a variety of ways.

From purely electronic, machine-made drones and rhythmic pulses to organic, beat-less chordal movements, the focus is as much on sound as it is on music. Written to the visuals as well as influencing them, Canyons’ music and Daniel Boyd’s work interlock, creating a stunning experience.

Daniel Boyd’s work reinterprets Aboriginal and AustralianEuropean history, drawing attention to the subjective nature of what we are taught. Boyd’s veil of transparent dots only partially reveals stories. The negative space surrounding the spherical marks enacts a reduction of information in the breaking down of the image, a kind of metaphor for the effect of time and memory on the narratives that surround objects and images, and an acknowledgment of stories lost in coloniser’s versions of history. Boyd’s use of dots recalls the tradition of Papunya Tula painting, but his technique is almost more indebted to the histories of Pointillism and Impressionism.

For the project, Canyons have developed a performance that combines machines with the looseness of a live band, blurring the line between programmed and live music and taking the audience through a kaleidoscope of genre and styles in a reflection of the nature of Boyd’s visuals.

CANYONS

DANIEL BOYD

Canyons (Ryan Grieve and Leo Thomson) were first introduced to audiences in 2008 through the release of their debut EP, The Lovemore EP on the duo’s own label, Hole in the Sky. Under Canyons’ musical direction, the label quickly garnered an international following, releasing groundbreaking debut records by Tame Impala and Pond, and a string of acclaimed dance releases that challenge the conventions of electronic music production.

Daniel Boyd has been exhibiting his work nationally and internationally since 2005. In 2011 Boyd completed a residency at The Natural History Museum, London which held a solo exhibition, Up In Smoke Tour. In 2007 Boyd was selected for the first National Indigenous Art Triennial, Culture Warriors, which was curated

by Brenda L. Croft at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Boyd’s work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Boyd has been represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery since 2009.

Grieve and Thomson write and produce all of Canyons’ music and have played the majority of instruments on their recordings to date. They translate these recordings to a live experience with the help of additional musicians to form a live band, and have enlisted Julian Sudek and Thom McAlister for this performance of 100 Million Nights.

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