BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Are composers ever truly ready to release their works?
It’s taken Rae Howell 15 years, but it’s been worth the wait. The composer, known for her role as artistic director of Sunwrae Ensemble, has finally released her debut solo album – a collection of her work spanning more than a decade.
‘Invisible Wilderness: Volume I and Volume II’ features Rae’s piano and keyboard works through genres from contemporary classic to jazz, and sees the London-based muso explore her Aussie roots. Expect “hypnotic cross rhythms, minimalistic themes, and cinematic textures, interspersed with melodic lines and improvisations” in this life-size collection recorded in the United States.
Rae studied her degree at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and has held musician and composer-in-residence posts across the world.
How does it feel to put your works out there after living with them for more than a decade?
It’s quite a relief to have these works out there – although I’ve performed some of them before, it’s certainly great that they’re recorded so I can free up space in my mind for new creations. I’ve had many people over the years request to learn my solo piano music, so it just seemed like the right time to record them and to create the manuscripts for those who can read music notation. The editing process was epic for 12 works across 84 pages. However, it’s quite exciting to have published a book of my own dots on lines!
How do you go about releasing a compilation of work like this – as your life has changed over time, surely your inspirations and styles must have changed too?
Indeed my life has changed, including inspirations and styles. The albums are a selection of my solo works which indeed span that period, however I think that to gain an insight into all of my work over that time, it’s good to listen to how these works feed into and out of my ensemble music, sound installation work and soundtracks for theatre, dance and film projects.
You’ve said the piano is where you feel most at home and vulnerable – what’s it like to reveal these intimate sides of your nature through this release?
I do feel at home at the piano. There’s always a state of vulnerability in playing solo, especially after working with an ensemble. But I think moving towards that feeling every now and again is good for the soul. I wouldn’t say the release reveals the intimate depths of my nature exactly – some works have grown from improvisations, others from theatre productions, private commissions or are musical expressions of a time and place during music residencies, projects or travels.
Why is it called’Invisible Wilderness’?
The title refers to one’s own experience of life in a way: the wilderness being your individual journey, and invisible meaning. Not something you can explain or see, exactly, because it’s your own. Similarly, I think the experience of listening to instrumental music is your own journey and different people take away different things, have their own experience, imagine their own thoughts.
Rae Howell will perform Melbourne 18 September with the Sunwrae String Quartet, and with Meg Morley at Sydney 24 September, Wauchope 26 September, and Brisbane 2 October – more info and tickets tickets from www.sunwrae.com or www.raehowellmusic.com.
Image supplied.
