NOMINATION: Work of the Year - Electroacoustic / Sound Art
The Electroacoustic / Sound Art category is for works which utilise and manipulate digital and/or analogue sound as the primary medium. The work may be interdisciplinary (incorporating more than one media). It may include, but is not limited to; sonic art, electronics, interactive work, generative music, environmental sound, installations, soundscapes, electroacoustic music, and intermedia works.
A work is defined as a single complete musical composition, or expression. This includes music with movements or sub-works (i.e. song cycles), installations, and real-time compositions (improvised music).
If you believe your work to be nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
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Nominee
James Ashley (Jim) Franklin
Title of the work
Branchings
Performer
Jim Franklin
Performance Date
9/4/2024
Venue
Online/YouTube
Nominator Statement
'Branchings' consists of 13 movements, all of which explore various facets of performance by either one or two players. Franklin completed 'Branchings' in 2024, releasing the final recordings on his YouTube channel, after releasing previous movements in stages (the 7th and final movement was released to the public 9 April 2024).
Branchings explores the contrasts and meeting points between various combinations of live-electronics and the shakuhachi. Developing further the techniques employed by Franklin in his previous large-scale work (Songs from the Lake, 2021, NEOS 12027), the movements explore the expansive ground between real-time manipulation of the sound of the shakuhachi (under the control of the shakuhachi player, thus simultaneous performance of shakuhachi and live-electronics), through simultaneous performance by one solo performer on shakuhachi as well as synthesizer or theremin (thus a soloist playing two highly diverse instruments at the same time), and onwards to mutlilayered performances which nevertheless can be performed live by two performers (one on shakuhachi, and one using an appropriate system of synthesizers, theremin, and/or signal-processing devices). In addition, all the electronics (as well as the shakuhachi) involves real-time performance; none of it is based on studio-oriented manipulation or composition of sound, or on a separation between performers who generate and who manipulate the sound. This self-imposed constraint reveals itself as a vast creative field for embodied performance encompassing the apparently simple acoustic instrument (shakuhachi) as well as the technology-based instruments. The resulting variety of the movements represents, in some ways, a catalogue of the possibilities of live performance in which these apparently contradictory sound worlds interact and merge.
No one makes work quite like Jim Franklin - he is constantly pushing the boundaries of both shakuhachi and live electronics, and 'Branchings' is his most fascinating development yet.
Nominee
James Ashley (Jim) Franklin
Title of the work
Branchings
Performer
Jim Franklin
Performance Date
9/4/2024
Venue
Online/YouTube
Branchings explores the contrasts and meeting points between various combinations of live-electronics and the shakuhachi. Developing further the techniques employed by Franklin in his previous large-scale work (Songs from the Lake, 2021, NEOS 12027), the movements explore the expansive ground between real-time manipulation of the sound of the shakuhachi (under the control of the shakuhachi player, thus simultaneous performance of shakuhachi and live-electronics), through simultaneous performance by one solo performer on shakuhachi as well as synthesizer or theremin (thus a soloist playing two highly diverse instruments at the same time), and onwards to mutlilayered performances which nevertheless can be performed live by two performers (one on shakuhachi, and one using an appropriate system of synthesizers, theremin, and/or signal-processing devices). In addition, all the electronics (as well as the shakuhachi) involves real-time performance; none of it is based on studio-oriented manipulation or composition of sound, or on a separation between performers who generate and who manipulate the sound. This self-imposed constraint reveals itself as a vast creative field for embodied performance encompassing the apparently simple acoustic instrument (shakuhachi) as well as the technology-based instruments. The resulting variety of the movements represents, in some ways, a catalogue of the possibilities of live performance in which these apparently contradictory sound worlds interact and merge.
No one makes work quite like Jim Franklin - he is constantly pushing the boundaries of both shakuhachi and live electronics, and 'Branchings' is his most fascinating development yet.