Recording: December Bee

Artist: December Bee

Song: [first piece]^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (CLUE NOTE: trivia and creative music (vol 3)), December 29, 2024.

December Bee - [first piece]

This ensemble seemed purpose-built to essay this composition, bringing together twang'n'noise sounds from host/composer Mira Martin-Gray (voice, laptop, mandolin) with Niamh Girling (spring with pickup, mandolin), Marilyn Yogarajah (piano, trumpet), Erin Corbett (banjo, mandolin, piano), and Kurt Newman (lap steel). Going on a wintry nature walk, copy of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek in hand, Martin-Gray's rambles considered the notion, apparently held by ancient Romans, that bees could be killed by echoes and other mysteries of the world outside our windows.

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

[CLUE NOTE will be back in its regular timeslot in the Southern Cross on Tuesday, January 28th with trivia on the theme of "the reality of fabric" and music by Mira Martin-Gray and %%30%30 performing the first live interpretation of Mira's album Stick Control for the Air Drummer.]

^* Based on the content, one might surmise this piece shares its title with the ensemble's, but it wasn't called out from the stage.

Recording: Cameron/Girling/Martin-Gray/Shortt

Artist: Allison Cameron/Niamh Girling/Mira Martin-Gray/Olivia Shortt

Song: ii-V-I ∞ [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Clue Note), October 29, 2024.

Allison Cameron/Niamh Girling/Mira Martin-Gray/Olivia Shortt - ii-V-I ∞ [excerpt]

A delightful evening at The Tranzac with the debut of Clue Note, a new residency hosted by Mira Martin-Gray and Niamh Girling. The night started with a classic pub quiz, drawing friends and strangers together into impromptu teams, before switching over to some creative music. This night saw the premiere of Martin-Gray's "ii-V-I ∞", a "freaky drone jazz composition" tackled by the composer (laptop, kazoo) plus Allison Cameron (organ, synth, laptop), Niamh Girling (tanpura) and Olivia Shortt (saxophone). The piece moved from an undifferentiated dronefield, pulling apart and allowing specifics (such as Short's "Lonely Woman"-ish moan-cries) to slip in — very existential.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[Clue Note returns to The Tranzac on Tuesday, November 26th with trivia on the theme of theme is "What's in a name?" and music performed by Socks and Sandals (and Friends), a.k.a. Germaine Liu, Mira Martin-Gray, Nick Storring, and Mark Zurawinski.]

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis XI

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis XI

Songs: Out Among the Reeds [excerpt] + Windows and Passageways [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge, June 30, 2019.

Cosmic Homeostasis XI - Out Among the Reeds [excerpt]

Cosmic Homeostasis XI - Windows and Passageways [excerpt]

As the month's fifth Sunday rolls around once more, a robust turnout of musicians (and audience) showed up at the Tranzac to hang out and hear some pleasantly-unrushed drift-drones.

The afternoon's performers included:

• Dame Cook - electronics, namer-of-things
• Ron Blake - ipad apps
• Michael Lynn (mkl32) - bass
• Niamh Girling - push chime
• Abigail Trotsky - guitar, ebow, pedals
• Paul Newman - tenor saxophone
• Chris Trotter - synth
• Laura Swankey - voice, pedals
• Mira Martin-Gray - electronics
• Jordan Brown - synth, pedals
• Matt Wells - bells
• beard closet - guitar, noisebox
• Del Stephen - piano, synth, drumstick
• Heraclitus Akimbo - static, found sounds, effects

You can also check out the full sets over on bandcamp:

[Cosmic Homeostasis will be back in the Southern Cross on the afternoon of Sunday, September 29th!]

Recording: Pederson-styrofoamNosebleedPrincess-Maraj

Artist: Craig Pederson/styrofoamNosebleedPrincess/Kieran Maraj

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination 71), May 5, 2019.

Craig Pederson/styrofoamNosebleedPrincess/Kieran Maraj - [excerpt]

An intriguing mix here of styrofoamNosebleedPrincess' percussive micro-samples (something like a digitized version of popping bubble wrap), Maraj's laptop manipulations and Pederson's trumpet. The tableau looked a bit like a strange sci-fi trial scene, with styrofoamNosebleedPrincess as the court reporter, fingers hovering over dictaphone keys, Maraj the courtroom artist, light pen in hand, and the be-hatted Pederson perhaps the accused trying to play his way out of a not-fully-understood charge.

You can watch this whole set over on Audiopollination's youtube channel:

[Audiopollination returns to Array tonight (Saturday, July 20th) to introduce visiting Australian vocalist Sonya Holowell to some local musicians; there will also a night of randomly-drawn small groups live-soundtracking short films on Saturday, August 3rd.]

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis

Song: She Sells Moondust Down by The Sea of Tranquility [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Cosmic Homeostasis VIII), September 30, 2018.

Cosmic Homeostasis - She Sells Moondust Down by The Sea of Tranquility [excerpt]

Another cheerfully-cluttered afternoon at The Tranzac, gathering past performers and new faces together to generate some spacious ambient drones. The crew this time included Patrick O'Reilly, Del Stephen, Niamh Shiffra Girling, Jordan Brown, Mira Martin-Gray, Abigail Trotsky, Chris Trotter, Ronnie Blake, Paul Newman, and Heraclitus Akimbo and got some welcome vocal assistance from aspiring homeostasisists Wolfgang and Annika. As usual, you can stream/download the whole thing over at Bandcamp:

[Cosmic Homeostasis IX will take place at The Tranzac on the afternoon of Sunday, December 30th — and the series will continue with four more fifth-Sunday-of-the-month instalments on 2019!]

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis

Song: Drone Wish for Paul Newman [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Cosmic Homeostasis VII), July 29, 2018.

Cosmic Homeostasis - Drone Wish for Paul Newman [excerpt]

A robust group of old and new faces combined to generate some Sunday-afternoon electroacoustic space drones at The Tranzac. Frequent contributor Paul Newman was absent (in celebration of a joyous milestone) so the first set started with some manipulated sounds from one of his ace solo saxophone recordings before slowly lurching towards The Spider Nebula. The full cast for this excursion was: Patrick O'Reilly, Del Stephen, Mira Martin-Gray, Niamh Shiffra Girling, Rod Campbell, mkl32, Ronnie Blake, Laura Swankey, Emily Denison, and Heraclitus Akimbo (who was also designated as the namer-of-things).

You can listen to the afternoon's full proceedings over on Bandcamp:

[Cosmic Homeostasis will be back at The Tranzac on Sunday, September 30th in its customary 3 p.m. timeslot. Help us listen to whispers from space!]