Description
This album is best listened to in its entirety… an immersion; a journey.
All the music on this album is recorded in Tunnel Number Five under Darwin, in August 2015.
It contains:
- traditional Zen meditations for shakuhachi (bamboo flute)
- original compositions and spoken word
- improvisations for shakuhachi and violin(s)
- and a sleeping dragon!
Track 4, 10 and 17 are improvisations recorded with a live audience during two underground performances. Spontaneous outpourings of music are fleeting, heard once then lost, so we are most grateful to location recordist David Matthews for his presence in the tunnel with us.
Tunnel Number Five’s festival of underground music ran a series of exploratory and collaborative concerts in the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels under Darwin in August 2016 and 2017. For information on the performers and concerts in Tunnel Number Five, Darwin World War II Oil Storage Tunnels, visit: https://tunnelnumberfive.com/
We respectfully acknowledge the Larrakia people, in whose land this tunnel lies.
For more album reviews, visit: https://annenorman.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/reviews-responses/
Physical CDs also available through Readings Carlton
309 Lygon St, Carlton, Victoria, 3053
03 9347 6633
Important note on listening to this album
This music sounds great through stereo speakers and AWESOME through headphones to get the full effect of being inside the tunnel. Dave sat with microphones in a hat above his ears, his right ear facing the tunnel end just 22m from his seat, while his left ear faced the entrance 150m away. Both ends have open doorways cut through only part of the concrete wall, so the reflections are fabulous. In the gigs, audience members sat in a long line on either side of Dave, and the performers wandered freely along the full 172m of the tunnel. Each listener chose the placement of their own seat, ensuring a completely unique aural experience: an exciting feature of this venue. So, don your headphones, and join us on a journey beneath the surface.
Yyan Ng –
I’ve listened to it intently with headphones on, and it is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first real album that I’ve heard that plays with space. And space as an instrument. It’s a truly ‘live’ album as it ‘places’ you there.
There are dozens of ‘live’ rock albums that never really capture that something special that being there captures. And I think a lot of it is that the listener can never really place themselves in with the musicians. With this, you can, and are forced to.
It’s a quick wake up call to why one mic one room jazz recordings sound so special; or the old recordings where there is a fair bit of ‘bleed’ in the recording through all mics; and certain dirty ‘live’ albums do capture that something special. With headphones, it feels like an intense live performance in the sense that you are an invisible spectator in a live concert. You can be in the space, and listen to it like a voyeur, intimately.
Sound without context of space is hard to internalise or personalise I think; we are animals that only really hear sound as a spatial element. Since music doesn’t really exist and is only a collection of sounds, this makes the music more real as sound. Coupled with the fact that in comparative theology there exists a deep archaic tendency of humans wanting to connect to mother (Terra) earth, and the longing, ultimately, to return to the womb… This being an underground tunnel makes that connection to the ultimate spiritual connection.
Yyan Ng.
Tuan Hung Le –
Beneath the Surface is Anne Norman’s site-specific album of traditional works, new compositions and improvisations for solo shakuhachi and shakuhachi with violin(s). The CD features performances of Anne Norman (shakuhachi ), Emily Sheppard (violin) and Anja Tait (violin). As the name of the album indicates, all the music and spoken poetry on this album was recorded underground in the 172-meter-long Tunnel Number Five under Darwin (Australia). In this project, the tunnel, which was originally constructed in response to attacks by Japanese bombers during WW II, has become an underground concert venue and recording space. The fabulous acoustic of the site contributes a significant part to the projection and reflection of sound waves and in the way musical streams and layers are woven together to create the ultimate audio experience for listeners. Australian composer-performer Anne Norman, who spent many years studying shakuhachi in Japan, has brought a spirit of reconciliation to the tunnel to transform its original purpose and bring the little flute (the shakuhachi) and the giant flute (the tunnel) together to start a meaningful and daring adventure in sounds.
The music and poetry in the album flows effortlessly from the first to the last track to create a mesmerising journey which is rich in colours, pace and emotion. Anne Norman demonstrates her mastery of the shakuhachi as well as her in-depth understanding of the spirit of Japanese contemplative music in Sarus Cranes which opens the CD. Her exquisite rendering of traditional Japanese Zen music is heard again in Dragon Dreaming in which the traditional melody Tamuke is presented as an offering to the amazing sounds of ocean swells supported by a very sensitive violin accompaniment by Anja Tait.
Moving from the traditional sounds of Japan, the shakuhachi embarks on a journey across various horizons and boundaries. Original compositions for solo shakuhachi and improvisations with violin(s) provide a colourful feast of sounds.
The two original compositions for shakuhachi, Rain Now and Then and Whispered Shadows, are beautiful works. Rain Now and Then is a stream of delicate melodies born of a masterful control of breath. In Whispered Shadows, soft multi-phonic elements of the shakuhachi and voice come and go behind or in-between walking rhythms of recurring patterns, creating a surreal impression.
The improvisations, especially the live recordings on tracks 4, (Bouncing back), 10 (Have they gone yet?) and 17 (Beneath the Surface), reveal the exceptional power of collective and spontaneous creativity. Listeners are led through various landscapes of sounds and emotions by the magical sounds of the shakuhachi at play with the violin(s) through space. The last track, Beneath the Surface, is so rich in audio images that it sounds almost like an artistic cinematic soundtrack condensed into a timeline of less than 7 minutes.
The poems, written and recited by Anne Norman, add another dimension to the whole program. They generate atmospheres, add depth to the meaning of the music and lead listeners to the next aural world about to unfold.
This CD should be listened to as a whole (and on headphones) to experience the flow of music and emotions in a space that has been transformed into a higher purpose.
Tuan Hung Le, Sonic Gallery https://sonicgallery.org/2016/10/06/musicsafari-6-beneath-the-surface-cd-review/