Robbie Avenaim – Shine Caught Blue
LP / Digital (HEVMAC063)
Shine Caught Blue the third solo album from Australian sound art legend Robbie Avenaim.
Over the past 30 years Robbie Avenaim has developed a unique and personal musical language on the drums, combining traditional and extended techniques with physical modification of the instrument — motorised, robotic and kinetic percussive mechanisms that provide greater scope for both composing and performing.
‘Shine Caught Blue’ features a groundbreaking collaboration between two peculiar percussion robots: Avenaim’s proprietary S.A.R.P.S. (Semi Automated Percussion System) and Melbourne’s iconic public sound sculpture the Federation Bells.
In this work, Avenaim melds with his unique human / machine interface to draw intricate, delicate textures from drums, percussion, bells and piano. The legendary Jim Denley also features on flute.
The result is an album of plaintive melancholy and dynamic tonal exploration, where moments of petrichor restraint swell into squalls of dexterous superhuman stick work and sophisticated euphoric abstraction.
This is a limited pressing of 300 copies on black vinyl with printed inner and OBI strip, designed by Luke Fraser and featuring photography by Mike Avenaim.
File under: experimental acoustic / avant-garde / robotic percussion
Today we launch the album presale and premiere the lead track ‘Tell me Everything’ (with accompanying video by SPOD) with the full album set for release on Friday 14 August.
“Shine Caught Blue’ will be premiered live at the Federation Bells on Friday 21 August as part of the Now Or Never Festival in Melbourne.