Artistic director of the Elision Ensemble (which has been running in one form or another since 1986), Daryl Buckley says the group strive to not only stretch contemporary sound into new places but also excite the audience.
“I’d begin by describing [our] music in terms of its energy,” Daryl says.
“While it may be unfamiliar in terms of ‘ok what’s coming up next’, there’s a great excitement because you can be in a totally different sonic landscape from one minute to another. It’s the joy of the unfamiliar, of being a listener of something that might be new.”
Daryl and his cohorts will be bringing Richard Barrett’s composition 'world-line' to the Redland Performing Arts Centre (Brisbane) next month, something he says he is excited to share for just the third time globally.
“It really pushes absolutely, every instrumental possibility that you could imagine for a flute or horn or percussion and of course, the electric lap-steel guitar.
“We premiered it (the complete cycle) in Leuven in Belgium for a festival called Transit in 2013, and then in Melbourne in 2014 but the opportunity to put it together comes by very infrequently, so we are very grateful to the Redlands Performing Arts Centre for this occasion.”
Even more wild than the rarity of the performance is the time and effort required to master the piece. Daryl, who plays the electric lap-steel guitar says he has “been working on this piece for five to six years and I’m almost, I would say – given the difficulty/ possibility of some sections – I’m about 95 per cent [mastered the song], but it’s taken years.
"There are segments of my part, which for two bars of music or a small phrase, I have probably spent 80, 90 hours.”
Click here to read our October 2017 Q&A with Daryl.
The mastering of the work isn’t the only complicated part for Daryl either. Elision, which was started in Melbourne in 1986 has transformed and reconfigured so many times that the band is now a truly global entity. “In the beginning, the intention was just to be a band that did the best we could.
"You don’t start out forming a band thinking ‘we’re gonna be around in 30-years time’. You just take it moment by moment.
“Being a geographically diverse group where your bass player lives in San Diego, your clarinettist lives in Cologne, your cellist lives in Paris, your trumpet player lives in Melbourne and your violinist lives in Brisbane; all of that becomes incredibly challenging.”
But there are upsides to longevity. “The great thing about longevity is it become a source of inspiration, it becomes a thing where your history becomes your future because it provides you with a base of knowledge from which you can actually be incredibly confident about what you’re doing.”
Daryl compares his organisational duties to those of a travel agent in regards to bringing all the required elements together, but says in the long run it’s always worth it. “I liken it to climbing a mountain, the degree of cooperation that’s needed across the team in order to be able to get up and down safely.
"The knowledge that you can rely on the person next to you is very essential and empowering.”
