ELISION performs Richard Barrett - world-line (2012-14)

'world-line' is one of Richard Barrett's most stunning compositional cycles. In physics and cosmology a world-line describes the path an object takes through four-dimensional spacetime. Here, the journey is marked by the energies of fifteen different vortices that fling the listener and performer ever outwards into new sonic dimensions with 'Rasa', the eighth movement, being the still centre of this hurricane universe. From the pounding opening chords of 'Dust 1' to the madcap tightly woven ensemble of the 'Lens' sequence, invention is ceaseless.

Richard's work highlights Daryl Buckley's intensive work in developing a lap-steel guitar performance practice in which a bodily choreography of metal slides combined with effect pedals generates vortex after vortex of sound. Further complex layers of rhythmic detail in the ensemble of percussionist Peter Neville, trumpeter Tristram Williams and Buckley's lapsteel, articulate and disrupt a flowing music of momentums and velocities. 'world-line' described as a 'cycle' is not some kind of Baroque suite. Rather, its sections are conceptualised as universes in which a 'particle' of sound in one position can potentially find non-linear connection to any other sound. Theoretical physics proposes a way of imagining musical relations that are emergent in nature also allowing for the contingency of improvisation and split-second responses in a complex notational net.

The filming took place at the Salon of the Melbourne Recital Centre, realised with the exceptional brilliance of videographer Agatha Yim and sound engineer Alistair McLean. In the years prior ELISION has performed the cycle in Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom. The Melbourne lockdowns of 2021, triggered by the global pandemic, enabled a further year of intense preparation. ELISION musicians Tristram Williams, Peter Neville and Daryl Buckley bring a rare, high-level and now decades long experience of performing the music of Richard Barrett to this very particular and special interpretation.

The score to world-line can be downloaded from:
https://richardbarrettmusic.com

An earlier CD version can be found at:
https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes...

Information and updates on ELISION can be found at:
www.elision.org.au