BY PAT JAFFE
One year ago, Pat Jaffe wrote a blog for CutCommon on the experience of recording and releasing his debut album Eldorado. He now returns to share the story of his second album A Sanctuary of Quietude, newly released and co-composed with friend Callum Mintzis.
Two years ago, if you’d told me that I would be releasing a 40-minute large-ensemble work, featuring cutting-edge Australian improvisors such as Helen Svoboda and Niran Dasika, I would’ve simply laughed.
Even a year ago, just off the back of Eldorado’s release, I wouldn’t have considered the possibility of taking on a major recording project so soon.
Making a debut album felt like a very self-contained act to me – putting out a singular representation of my musical identity at that point in time, with the thought that I would create a separate musical snapshot a few years later. But I now see musical output as a kind of spectrum, with your debut release (or concert) at one end, and each musical creation flowing into the next as you gradually get closer to realising your true artistic vision.
It was only after launching my first album that I realised the range of opportunities that can come from that bold step of putting your music out into the world.
The collaboration for this new album A Sanctuary of Quietude came about because Callum Mintzis and I both adored each other’s 2020 solo releases. We’d been playing jazz gigs together since our high school days, but had never really talked much about the chamber music that we were each working on in the background. Then our albums came out, a couple of months apart, and we realised there were commonalities and contrasts between our compositions that we wanted to explore together.
Connecting with the music community
In the previous article I contributed to CutCommon, I reflected on how I felt like a little bit of an outsider to the Australian scene because of my decision to study economics at university rather than music. One year on, I don’t think that statement could be further from the truth.
I now feel connected to a wide range of musicians within the classical and improvised music scenes, as well as countless venue operators, reviewers, and sound engineers.
Once again, the act of putting my own music out there was the main impetus for this – in fact, at least three members of the A Sanctuary of Quietude ensemble were people I first met at the Eldorado album launch.
Finding confidence as a creator
An active year of performing, writing, and bringing projects to life also meant I felt much more deliberate in my artistic choices with this work. This was particularly noticeable in some of the risks we took with the composition – juxtaposing a number of radically different sections against each other – and also in how much more integrated improvisation was within the piece.
Improvised music often seems to touch me in a different way, emotionally: I feel it’s a direct translation from the player’s state of mind to what comes out of the instrument. As such, I’m an advocate for incorporating improvisation into chamber music, something I did to a limited degree in my debut release but have continued to explore since.
Some other examples of my newfound confidence as a creator were the purposeful choices we made in writing for the personalities of specific musicians, incorporation of more extended techniques in this work, and the extent to which I was able to contribute to post-production of the album.
Writing music with friends
I wrote last time about how grateful I was for the wonderful relationships I formed through the process of making an album. This is one thing that has not changed one bit in the ensuing year.
The most obvious of these relationships was that with my co-composer Callum (pictured below). Writing with one of my closest friends was an experience of pure joy, and I would highly recommend other classical composers explore the possibilities of collaborative composition. We developed an incredibly trusting relationship, and a lot of beautiful musical choices emerged from this.
One little example is that I penned much of the music for the final movement Murmur, and originally planned it for a subset of the ensemble without organ. As we edited the music together, Callum came up with the idea of retaining the subtle, deep organ drone from the previous movement so the audience is only aware of its presence when it suddenly drops out. I think this moment (1:06 in Murmur) is probably my favourite within the whole work. In some ways, I can’t believe I didn’t think to do it myself – but I’m so happy the collaboration led to moments like this.
Filling our lives with new music
I’ve taken some big steps forward with my music over the past year, and I’m so glad I have this new release as a record of that.
Like Eldorado, A Sanctuary of Quietude has come into the world thanks to the wonderful connections that music allows us to form, and the slightly crazy idea to bring those people together to create something new.
Let’s hope 2022 is also filled with new music, and us all stepping a little closer to realising our artistic visions.
Find A Sanctuary of Quietude on Bandcamp.
Images supplied.
