ACME
The Australian Creative Music Ensemble is a new contemporary collective focused on improvising, and dedicated to the commissioning of new work. Working with the new generation of creative musicians and composers, and not afraid to challenge both its members and audiences, ACME seeks to investigate non-musical ideas and find new ways to create music.
No New Noise
In an age of personal assistants hidden inside mobile phones, driverless cars and increasingly self-aware technology, no new noise asks the dangerous question: how long will it be until artificial intelligence replaces composers and musicians?
Three composers respond to this provocative inquiry, creating new works for a powerhouse improvising ensemble of the most awarded innovative Australian musicians from the fields of jazz, new music and improvisation, to realise a new trailblazer in the presentation of contemporary music.
Pairing jazz rhythm section, electric guitars, brass, autonomous electronics, multiple vocalists and live processing, no new noise delivers an entirely new and thought provoking musical experience.
Composers Joe O’Connor, Reuben Lewis and Alistair McLean question authenticity in an age of digital reproduction, ask whether computers can develop a creative aesthetic, ponder the very nature of intelligence and even give over control to our new A.I. overlords in a trio of works that sound like nothing else.
no new noise premiered on Oct 6th 2017 at The Substation, as part of Melbourne Festival.
i know that i know, by Reuben Lewis
By merging famous, found, and improvised text, I know that I know questions the nature of intelligence, both human and artificial.
Recordings of these texts serve as source material around which the ensemble improvises new accompaniment, as a live vocalist and pre-recorded parts chart the development of human intelligence from its initial awakening to the invention of self-aware computers.
Partial Disclosure, by Joe O'Connor
Whether listening to a recording or hearing amplified live music, sound is captured and converted into electricity, sent through long lengths of copper, converted to 1s and 0s, chopped up and altered, and turned back into vibrations using magnets.
By exploring the relationships between amplification, digital processing and acoustic instruments, this work asks how these common processes may alter an authentic performance of music, what they change and what may be lost.
electric sheep, by Alistair McLean
Paying homage to the ‘game music’ of Zorn, electric sheep is a game piece for improvising ensemble and computer, where the computer serves as director, conductor and ensemble member. Making decisions, instructing musicians and controlling the course of the performance, the computer literally leads the performance, creating a genuine synthesis between human and artificial creativity.
Georgie Darvidis – vocals
Ben Hanlon – double bass
Kieran Hensey – saxophones
Bob Jarvis – coding
Reuben Lewis – trumpet
Alistair McLean – guitars
James McLean – drumkit
Freya Shack-Arnott – cello
Joe O’Connor – keyboards
no new noise was generously supported by the Alan C Rose Memorial Trust Scholarship.
Doppler
Set in the rarely-experienced surrounds of Jack’s Magazine, a 19th century explosives store on the banks of the Maribyrnong River, the Australian Creative Music Ensemble (ACME) presents DOPPLER, a newly commissioned work for ensemble and electronics.
DOPPLER explores ideas of duality, symmetry and space, presenting an immersive sound work that echoes the unique architecture of two identical
munitions magazines surrounded by 10-metre-high blast mounds.
With haunting visuals that amplify the connection between sound and space, ACME reimagine a forgotten piece of history in this half-submerged, cavernous chamber hidden in the inner West.
Georgie Darvidis – vocals
Joshua Kyle – vocals
Reuben Lewis – trumpet and electronics
Alistair McLean – electronics and spatialisation
James McLean – percussion
Ryan Williams – recorders
Composed by Alistair McLean & Joseph O’Connor.
Original photo by John Gollings.Paragraph
Presented by the Australian Creative Music Ensemble and Working Heritage.
