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Ozmosis are intrepid border crossers. They play a vibrant mix of Hispanic, Balkan and original music, all laced with jazz improvisation and skillful interplay. Masters of a surprising array of woodwinds, strings and percussion, their debut recording takes a wild and wonderful intercontinental journey beyond time and boundaries. Ozmosis are a duo comprising reedman, Mark Cain, who's 2004 solo cd, Reeds [NM125 through MGM] received glowing reviews and guitarist, Tim Chambers, who is well known for his passionate interest in hispanic string instruments. Augmenting the line-up is virtuoso percussionist, Paul Tanner, who plays an exciting range of rhythmic textures throughout, including a couple of fine marimba solos. The Hispanic and Balkan threads in the music reflect the interests of the players. Cain's love of the sinuous melodies and angular rhythms of the Balkans is somewhat akin to Chambers' long-time involvement in Andean music and other hispanic traditions. Perhaps it was inevitable that, in recording together, these disparate influences would come together... somehow. TO ORDER OZMOSIS |
1. Sikus A Dog 2. Quentin's Tarogotino 3. First Song 4. Kismagyar Dugattyu 5. Santiago 6. Celtic Bazaar 9. Decameron 10. Fresh Forgetting of the Unremembered 13. Palhaco |
"It's hard when multi-tracking yourself not to emerge with an unsparky thick lifelessness. But Australian, Cain, experienced in several traditions and master of a wide range of conventional, ethnic and unlikely reeds and flutes with gorgeous rich tone, joined by percussionist, Paul Tanner, makes clear-cut melodies with and interplay and wit that sounds like a finely attuned group." REEDS is a new CD by West Austalian composer and improvising multi-instrumentalist, Mark Cain. As its name suggests, this album features a wonderfully diverse and exotic variety of wind instruments ranging from saxophones and clarinets to ancient, ethnic and newly-invented instruments, all played by a "one-man wind orchestra" with occasional percussion support. In surprising and imaginative ways this richly textured music traverses jazz, non-western and early music influences. Its a venturesome and very listenable recording that takes the listener on a journey beyond maps and boundaries. As Cain puts it: "Since my teenage years, I've listened to 'music from the other side of the fence'. It's been a rich vein of inspiration that's taken me into Balkan, klezmer, jazz, folk and beyond, as well as inspiring me to make my own instruments". Described by Doug Spencer [ABC Radio National, "The Planet"] as "adventurous, highly diverse and readily accessible", Reeds is an apt title for Cain's cornucopia of winds, which include lesser known instruments such as the gralla, a folk oboe from Catalonia; the taragotino, a small wooden saxophone; the gemshorn, a medieval bullhorn recorder and a range of self-made instruments, including the surgical glove bagpipe, a PVC chalumeaux and the slide 'didgeriloo'. Some of the tracks also include some superb percussion courtesy of Paul Tanner. The many instruments on this album serve the music masterfully. Reeds is a breath of fresh air from a musician for whom the next breath is just a sound away. TO ORDER REEDS |
1. Tangeet 2.Shlomo's Dance 3. Smiles 4. Fixin' to Jive 6. Gralla 1 7. Limkaba 12. Kwakumba
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POCKETS | Nova Ensemble POCKETS is a testament to musical invention. It's recorded by one of Western Australia’s most respected and long standing groups, Nova Ensemble, whose use of industrial and recyclable materials is their unmistakable onstage trademark. Featuring a unique ingenue of eye-catching and wondrous sounding instruments, Nova’s music overflows with amazing percussion and woodwind rhythms that make this recording a gem - a tapestry of influences and traditions informed by our proximity to the neighbouring Indian Ocean region, yet unmistakably Australian. A mainstay of the national Musica Viva in Schools programme for the past decade, Nova was a hit at the 2001 JakArt Festival [Jakarta], performed to sell-out audiences at the 2002 Perth International Festival [“Drummers of Gilgamesh”] and inspired Singaporean schools on their 2003 Musica Viva Tour. Enjoy the soundbites! MP3 samples: TO ORDER POCKETS |
1. Washboard Cha Cha 6. Quickening |
JUNKELAN | Nova Ensemble JUNKELAN takes place in a bleak, apocalyptic future, where wandering cyber minstrels sift through aftermath debris creating in turns shuddering, eerie and evocatively lyrical sounds from cold steel and industrial plastics. Scrap metal and hi-tech converge in an orchestra of ingenius found and reconstructed objects. Phoenix-like, out of post-holocaustal embers, music evolves using whatever resources can be found.. Sonic imagination transforms corroded industrial fragments into a soundscape of considerable power and intensity. The performance and subsequent recording integrate primitive and new technologies with cultural influences from Indonesia and SE Asia. Oil drum taiko, cog bonangs, contra pvc clarinet, frog tubes, stop-sign-a-phone, megadidge, chainmakers and heckle'n'jeckle are just a few of the instruments comprising the otherwordly. TO ORDER JUNKELAN |
11. Ritual Fragments: Drumming |
SAMPLER | Nova Ensemble A panorama of Nova Ensemble's music for concert, dance and theatre. The music is performed in or for various settings: Junkelan, Rock Sing by Moonlight, Orchestra of the Global Nomads, Trash, The Cave and Inventions. Composer credits include: David Pye, Gary Ridge, Lee Buddle, Warick Bone & myself. MP3 sample: |
4. Celtic Bazaar |
| MARK CAIN. citizencainm@bigpond.com............................................................... bio. recordings. performance & education. projects. contact. home | |
OZMOSIS | Mark Cain + Tim Chambers 
