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Uncovered Ground

This first-ever collection of concert works by Felicity Wilcox represents the cream of her recent chamber music compositions. They include a brand-new recording of her celebrated bass clarinet work composed for Jason Noble, ‘People of this Place’, alongside works commissioned by Ensemble Offspring, Ironwood, and the Australia Ensemble, as well as a movement from Wilcox's first string quartet, performed by Sydney Art Quartet.

This eclectic and mercurial album marks the honing of a strong, contemporary voice in Australian art music, and is an important record of Wilcox's emergent work. It is also a loving tribute to the musicians and ensembles who have championed her music and who contribute so much to Australia's musical landscape.

Artists

Ironwood

Ironwood is Australia's renowned historically informed performance group crossing the boundaries of old and new. We are a flexible ensemble of Australia-based world class musicians who love to explore the sound of chamber music on gut strings.

Ensemble Offspring

Ensemble Offspring are Sydney’s musical mavericks, uniting innovative Australian instrumentalists with a broad collective of collaborators to champion the music of tomorrow. Together we explore new ideas through living music that leaps across art form.

Sydney Art Quartet

Founded by artistic director and cellist James Beck, Sydney Art Quartet is a virtuosic quartet that playfully sidestep routine, cliche and orthodoxy. Since 2015 the group has created and produced over 100 performances with some of this country’s most exciting creatives.


Press quotes

“From the violin’s icy delicacy in Falling (from Snow) to the musique concrete-style recording manipulation in Le Tourbillon, her creative vision reigns supreme. The mind-bending fusion of Baroque sensibilities and dissonant textural explorations in the title track probably sum up Wilcox’s historically-informed modernity best.” ★★★★★

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— Jessie Cuniffe, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age

“The music is startling in its originality and use of instrumental techniques and electronic treatments, with much of it informed by other cultures.” ★★★★★

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— Paul Cooke, 2MBS Fine Music

“... the composer’s introduction [to the title piece] likens the work to a rendered wall that is slowly chipped away to reveal delicate and ornamental forgotten detail. It’s a complex work, featuring instruments in both intimate conversations and larger, powerful groupings. Uncovered Ground is a work that will challenge our notions of the characteristics of both old and new music. Wilcox is in full flight of inventiveness, with innovations in the use of conventional instruments and multiple electronic techniques. The disc opens with People of this Place, the composer’s reflection on her experience of living on unceded Aboriginal lands. The work is written for Jason Noble’s bass clarinet, which is a wonderfully expressive vehicle for the composer’s ideas and seems to reach into one’s very soul. Uncovered Ground is an attractively presented showcase of Felicity Wilcox’s recent chamber works, offering listeners a refreshingly different perspective on both new and old music.”

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— Margaret Steinberger, classikON

“The ensembles on the disc are themselves a clue to the breadth of repertoire on this anthology which ranges from the contemporary to the Renaissance, indigenous Australian to European, manipulated and experimental to traditional. Wilcox’s writing is inventive and creates new frontiers in sound with her techniques and combinations of instruments from duos to octets. Special credit must go to Jason Noble who plays on most of the tracks. His expertise and virtuosic playing give new insights into the versatility of the bass clarinet, whether as an equal partner with the baroque cello, or reborn as a digeridoo or a bird of the outback.”

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— Shamistha de Soysa, SoundsLikeSydney

Audio previews

Track Listing

  1. People of this Place Felicity Wilcox
  2. Uncovered Ground Felicity Wilcox

    3. Gouttes d’un Sang Etranger Felicity Wilcox Marin Marais

  3. Tambourin
  4. Le Tourbillon (electronic interlude)
  5. Le Tourbillon
  6. Vivre Sa Vie, Composer’s Cut Felicity Wilcox
  7. Gouttes d’un Sang Etranger La Reveuse - Coda Felicity Wilcox Marin Marais
  8. SON-ombra, String Quartet no. 1 SON Felicity Wilcox
  9. Gouttes d’un Sang Etranger Fragments I - IV Felicity Wilcox Marin Marais
  10. Snow II. Falling Felicity Wilcox

Performers

Composers

Felicity Wilcox

Felicity Wilcox is an ARIA and AACTA-nominated Australian composer, whose output encompasses concert music, film music, songwriting and improvisation, music for theatre, installation, live events, and radio.

Marin Marais

Marin Marais (1656-1728) was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for six months. In 1676 he was hired as a musician to the royal court of Versailles and was moderately successful there, being appointed in 1679 as ordinaire de la chambre du roy pour la viole, a title he kept until 1725.


Where to buy

Uncovered Ground is available for download from the iTunes Music Store.
It's available for streaming through Spotify and Apple Music.

Uncovered Ground is available as as CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer secure online ordering.

Move CDs can be ordered through music retailers across Australia including Readings.

Product details

List price
$25.00 AUD
Release date
May 2021
Copyright
© Felicity Wilcox
Phonogram
℗ 2021 Move Records
Categories
Australian, Classical
Catalogue number
MD 3456
Alternate catalogue number
MD3456
Barcode
EAN 9314574345629