Driftwood
From Aviva and Nick…
AE: Nick and I have been circling around each other for years through the experimental/improvising communities of Naarm and the Sydney based group, The Splinter Orchestra. Since we both started living in the same city we talked about making music together, so when we finally sat down to have a play, we already had a wealth of shared points of reference. There were so many directions the music could have taken us in.
NA: We firstly tried an electronic, layering approach to sound making. Then Aviva started to play on one of my small reed organs that I’d recently been fixing up and returning into just intonation. As I only had one organ at the time we both recorded a small solo, me playing acoustic guitar and organ and Aviva with clarinet and organ, then we layered them together. When listening back we instantly knew that this would be our sound together, this would be our music. Soon after I had gotten another reed organ, we quickly got together again and played together with two organs, clarinet and acoustic guitar.
AE: This distinct sound world we now refer to as ‘Driftwood’. Performing face to face, the 2 antique pump organs create a resonant backdrop which buoy our simultaneous improvisations on clarinets and guitars.
NA: The combination of the two reed organs with their unique non-equal tempered tuning creates a different sensation in the air, the vibrations move differently, the harmonics are more expressive, and feel more alive. Then adding acoustic guitar and clarinet into the mix adds another level to the sound.
AE: The harmonics from all of our instruments meet to vibrate the air all around us. It’s like stepping into another world, almost as though the music is a folk tradition from an imaginary planet we have only ever visited in our dreams. The playing feels generous, joyous, free from preciousness, full of openness and trust. There’s a kind of reverential, gently ecstatic quality, dissolving of the idea of duality, a letting go of virtuosity, an embrace of sound to create a world where the listener listens not to, but from within.
credits
released November 22, 2024
Driftwood is Aviva Endean and Nick Ashwood