Thousand Year Dreaming (1990) was commissioned by Essential Music and was written with the musicians on this recording, their particular strengths and inclinations, very much in mind. It grew out of an improvisatory piece, Nautilus, which Art Baron, Scott Robinson and Annea Lockwood realised in 1989. They found that the sound of conch shell trumpets, didjeridu and frame drums really flowered in the resonant spaces they were using for the piece. Lockwood started imagining the sonorities possible with four didjeridus, gongs, conches and trombones and frame drums, all shaped by the penetrating and sensuous edge of oboes and clarinets.
Four sections emerged to which she gave the subtitles: breathing and dreaming; the Chi stirs; floating in mid-air; in full bloom. While most of the work is fully scored, it contains two improvisations: a duet for John Snyder (didjeridu) and Scott Robinson (frame drum), and a section for all four didjeridus. In performance, at this point the four players wander amongst the audience, exploring the space¹s acoustics, playing into a listener¹s shoulder here, a foot there - sonic massage.
When close to completing the piece Lockwood realised that its underlying, generative idea was the gradual awakening and release of sonic energy, energy which I think of as coiled and latent, in breathing and dreaming, but with an embedded power which will nourish when summoned.
floating world (1999) is an immersion in place and transience. The composer invited friends who work with environmental sounds themselves, and who have a strong sense of place, to make recordings for her in places of personal, spiritual significance to them, so it is a collaborative work. From their field recordings (edited but not processed), and other sounds Lockwood wove the slowly shifting texture forming floating world.
Performers on Thousand Year Dreaming: Art Baron, conch shell, trombone, didjeridu; Libby Van Cleve, oboe, English horn; Jon Gibson, didjeridu; Annea Lockwood, voice; J.D. Parran, clarinet, contrabass clarinet; Michael Pugliese, tam-tam, clapping sticks; N. Scott Robinson, conch shell, frame drums, pod rattle, tam-tam; John Snyder, didjeridu, waterphone; Charles Wood, tam-tam, stones; Peter Zummo, trombone, didjeridu
