Who Are We Now?
The theme for the UK/Australia Season 2021-22 could not be more closely aligned with the questions, challenges and themes that underpin hcmf// 2022 as we reflect on the world around us, question the nature of identity, cross borders, push boundaries and explore our place on a planet in crisis.
Proud to be joining the largest ever cultural exchange between the two nations, hcmf// is presenting five events as part of the UK/Australia Season 2021-22. This major cultural exchange between Australia and the United Kingdom celebrates the diverse and innovative artist communities and cultural sectors of each nation and is a joint initiative by the British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Under the banner of ‘Who Are We Now?’, the Season programme is a celebration of the diversity of cultures and languages in both countries. It emphasises Australia’s First Nations voices, has enabled cultural exchange across the UK and celebrates the diverse society that has emerged in both Australia and the UK through migration. It is also an opportunity to reflect on our two countries’ history, explore our current relationship, and imagine our future together; providing a chance to deepen relationships in business, higher education and government.
UK/Australia Season @ hcmf// 2022
The UK/Australia programme at hcmf// gets underway over the festival’s second weekend, as a huge white inflatable pod lands amidst the Victorian splendour of Huddersfield Town Hall and both become home to an incredible, totally immersive installation, Polar Force – Array.
‘He recounted his first experience on the ice, where the surrounding landscapes seemed to articulate avant-garde percussion works of an epic scale …’
Eugene Ughetti
Composer-percussionist Eugene Ughetti recounts his first meeting with sound artist Philip Samartzis, as he was preparing for his second residency at the Australian Antarctic Division’ Casey Base Station – and how he accepted Samartzis’ challenge to work together to shape a new performance work (Polar Force) based on recordings of ice, air and water.
The second major work resulting from their five-year collaboration, which can be experienced at hcmf// from Friday 25 – Sunday 27 November, is Polar Force – Array; an eight-channel sound installation expressing the experience of a remote Antarctic research station through the convergence of sound, site and performance. The layers of recordings of radar and scientific equipment create an immersive and affective experience of the spaces, protocols and conditions that govern the bracing polar environment.
The specially designed and built white inflatable structure which is the setting for Polar Force – Array is reminiscent of a remote research station on the ice, adding to the powerful sense of isolation and foreboding.
Being presented as part of hcmf//’s The Current Climate, Polar Force – Array promises ‘a hyper-realistic encounter of the power forces that operate at the margins of our planet.’
Also on Friday 25 November, there’s the first of two concerts by the Australian Art Orchestra, which has achieved an unparalleled record of musical projects that express the energy of Australia’s cultural diversity.
In Australian Art Orchestra: Solos, Helen Svoboda, Peter Knight and Aviva Endean present three solo improvised performances, taken from a series originally commissioned in 2019 for their 25th anniversary and conveying the distinctive, idiosyncratic personal instrumental languages of AAO.
Helen Svoboda weaves vocal tessiture with arco bass harmonics to create a beguiling polyphony. AAO artistic director Peter Knight brings his distinctive approach to the trumpet, using breath and tones processed by a range of delays and tape loops. Aviva Endean closes out the event creating immersive sound worlds with prepared and modified clarinets and lo-fi electronics.
Pushing musical and technical boundaries, the following day, Saturday 26 November, sees Australian chamber ensemble Decibel take the stage with a programme of works written for the ensemble by founder and artistic director Cat Hope. Integrating acoustic and electronic instruments, Decibel at once remains faithful to traditional western chamber music whilst removing stylistic boundaries in the way it commissions and performs works, and has become a leading pioneer of digital score formats.
Hope’s music is characterized by a focus on aleatoric elements, drone, glissandi, and low frequency sound is notated digitally as animated notation: in colour and in motion, read from networked iPads. Featuring three UK Premieres, the programme features music from the six-year period 2012 – 2018, with acoustic and electronic combinations that include subtone parts, live signal processing and co-composed approaches.
Later on Saturday 26 November, the Australian Art Orchestra is back, this time with Fresh Water – Salt Water, which is an unprecedented meeting of musical cultures. This bilateral collaboration between AAO and hcmf// presents new works co-created and performed by Australian and UK artists in both countries.
The ensemble features Yolngu traditional songmen David Wilfred and Daniel Wilfred, from Arnhem Land (NT), along with an ensemble of leading Australian musicians in creative collaboration with British composer/performers Mandhira de Saram and Cath Roberts.
The project presents a diverse vision of contemporary Australia, in collaboration with next generation artists from the UK. Cross-cultural, contemporary, and unclassifiable in terms of genre, this is a project that breathes daring and optimism.
Departing from the extraordinary practice of the Yolngu people, Fresh Water – Salt Water creates an artistic space that is both ancient and cutting-edge, projecting UK-Australia relationships as diverse, savvy, and forward-looking. It presents a contemporary vision enriched by a cross-pollination of cultures and showcases an ensemble that is diverse in age, gender and cultural backgrounds. It both celebrates ancient traditions and bravely builds a contemporary canon of musical works.
Wrapping up the UK/Australia Season at hcmf//, on Sunday 27 November, founder of Speak Percussion Eugene Ughetti presents Agglomeration of Measurement – a survey of work, spanning 15 years, articulating some of the creative relationships surrounding his percussive language and a 21st century Australian percussion sound.
Featuring recent experimental compositions and situated within the remarkable white inflatable structure that also houses Polar Force – Array, this solo percussion event unfolds as a choreographed, immersive, multi-channel sound experience and includes choreographer Martin del Amo’s movement work for solo, silent percussionist, Inaudible. The other featured composers are some of Australia’s leading voices in new and experimental composition; Liza Lim, Thomas Meadowcroft, Nina Buchanan and Alexander Garsden.
hcmf// is thrilled to be playing a part in the UK/Australia Season which will have seen more than 200 live and digital events spanning cities, regions and rural areas throughout Australia and the UK, with an artistic programme spanning multiple art forms and a multitude of world, UK and Australian premieres. The Season ran until March this year in Australia, with events in the UK running until the end 2022.