Permafrost

Composer: Dr Donna Hewitt
Performer: Dr Alana Blackburn
The work is composed specifically for Blackburn and is the first composer-performer collaboration between these two artists. The work is for recorders and fixed electronics. It is inspired by Alana’s comprehensive musical vocabulary with the recorder family and highlights her extensive performance experience with the instruments.
The work utilises both natural and synthesised sounds, including some recordings of Antarctic wildlife. The work aims to entwine the textures, timbres and spatial characters of the live and pre-recorded sounds. The work is inspired by the concept of ‘Permafrost’, the ‘permanently’ frozen earth found in colder climates. The predicted thawing of the permafrost is accompanied by some ominous scientific predictions for the future of our climate, ecosystems and health and was at the forefront of Hewitt’s mind as she composed this work.
The outcome comprises two versions of the work, one in stereo and one for 5.1 surround sound. The collaborative process merges the different knowledge backgrounds and musical practices of the artists, bringing contemporary classical musical approaches together with recording and production approaches typically encountered in the popular music studio production contexts. The approach taken to this work aligns with Robert Davidson’s notion of ‘stylistic pluralism’ (2014) that is becoming so prevalent in contemporary music making, merging not only stylistic sound worlds but importantly stylistic processes. The process of creation of the work saw an interesting shift in the roles of improvisation, recording and notation and highlights the collapsing traditional composer/performer, creator/disseminator hierarchies of the 19th Century.