BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Brisbane audio-visual artist Sam Poggioli (Sampology) grew up surrounded by modern sounds. His brother had turntables and their older cousins ran an electronic outfit. But Sam is no stranger to music of the concert hall, either – he was drawn into classical realms early on as he watched his double bassist father Ken perform in the orchestra.
“You know how you go back to a memory and you can picture where you were sitting, what was in front of you? I remember being kind of moved,” Sam says. “The sounds of the orchestra – if you’re sitting in the right place, they emotionally manipulate you.”
Sam says he listened to “young people music” during his earlier years. He’s since worked to form his own style and this week he teams up with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and composer Gordon Hamilton to present multidisciplinary experience Natural Selections as part of QSOCurrent.
Sam calls it “the best and most exciting show I’ve ever done” – so what can we expect from our place in the audience? Sounds attached to a 20-foot screen of visuals, for one.
When coming up with inspiration, Sam asked himself: “I’ve got this setup that allows me to control any audio I want and any visuals on this screen behind me – how can I get that screen to communicate with the orchestra?”.
“When I first started developing this show I brainstormed a bunch of different ideas. A few of them that popped up ended up being nature related.”
In one piece, Sam sampled different birdsongs. Images of the birds will be projected on the screen, and Gordon has scored music to go with.
“I’m not the best at sight-reading musical notation,” Sam admits. “But seeing this stuff musically presented on a professional score for all these different players is kind of amazing for me.”
“I might write a chord progression on piano or a drum sequence, whereas Gordon can think across 12-15 different instruments at once. I’m in such awe of his skill of writing.
“I’m finding all the sounds are wider and bigger – just the way they’re all spread out through the different players. I’m trying to get the screen to talk to the orchestra.”
Also centred around nature are “tracks” with a water theme – and Sam’s mum Sue, a visual artist, has supplied the illustrations. A family affair, Ken will also feature in the QSO for the show.
It’s the first time Sam has presented this show, and he views it as a starting point for his future gigs and collaborations. It also marks the debut performance of new music from his EP Natural Selections.
Sam started DJing and using samplers to produce music when he was in high school. “That filled the space of learning an instrument in the traditional way,” he says. “I dissected the music I liked and tried to figure out how to make it myself.”
He’s worked across studios in Europe and the United States, and collaborated with talent from Summer Heights High’s Chris Liley to South African artist Spoek Mathambo. Yet he’s still viewing his QSOCurrent gig as “an experiment – and I’m trying to include every facet of amazing thing that I have at my disposal from all the different shows”.
See Sampology in his show Natural Selections at QSOCurrent, 8.30pm April 30 in the Powerhouse Theatre. Tickets and more info from qso.com.au/current/qso-sampology.
Image supplied.
