'Sheets Of Sound' is the latest solo project from award-winning Western Australian percussionist Louise Devenish.
Featuring two new commissions composed especially for Devenish by Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh and Matthias Schack-Arnott, 'Sheets Of Sound' diversifies the sonic possibilities of metal, paper, plastic and skin in combination with electronics. 'Sheets Of Sound' is a curious exploration of the intersection between sound, performance and installation.
Hsieh’s composition utilises paper, plastic and metal sheets and builds dialogues between texture, tactility and the soloist’s body.
Schack-Arnott’s work animates two bass drums. Their skins vibrating through the use of extreme low frequency.
“Matthias, Annie and I have known each other for a long time but have never collaborated in this way before. Both composers are really highly regarded, and both have used percussion in their previous work, but this is the first time either of them have been commissioned for solo percussion,” Louise says.
“Annie and Matthias’s works both lean into a new way of making music that is referred to as ‘post-instrumental’. They take familiar instruments such as a bass drum and use it in a surprising new way.”
Following the confirmation of funding for the commissions from the Australia Council in 2018
the new works started being developed in Melbourne, online and here in Perth. Louise, Annie and Matthias will spend ten days at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) creating these new instruments and realising the works with Tura’s Artistic Program Manager Tristen Parr and PICA’s team in the lead up to the world premiere.
“This new work sits somewhere between a music concert and a sound installation – the instruments and the way they are setup is totally unique and that makes for a really exciting performance,” Louise says.
