In curating the ELISION Performance Series, available on YouTube, I wanted to bring home to the viewer the physicality of our music making. Sound, to my mind, is not separable from the body. The operation of a musical instrument is revealed to be more than a simple extension of a finger, limb or breath; instead it embodies humanity as it is transformed to become ‘us’. The task for our team, the remarkable duo of videographer Agatha Yim and sound engineer Alistair McLean, is to provide witness to this magical moment, to transcend the usual distancing limitations and formalities of the concert hall.  We intend the resultant films to embed the audience inside the band and capture for the viewer the presence of what we musicians see and feel as we are on stage – to live and breathe with us behind the music stand! 

Elision

Daryl Buckley. Photo © Nico Keenan.

With respect to works by Liza Lim and Richard Barrett forming part of the ELISION Performance series, the players have now spent upwards of 30 years working closely with both composers. Our premise is that brilliance...