Decibel CV (as of July 2011)

Formed 2009, Based in Western Australia.

Winners of the APRA/AMC Inaugural Award for excellence in experimental music, 2009-2010 and the Western Australian State Award for the same program.

Cat Hope: artistic director, alto flute, bass, electronics, composition.
Lindsay Vickery: clarinets, saxaphones, Max programming, composition.
Stuart James: piano, percussion, Max/Arduino programming.
Malcolm Riddoch: guitar, electronics, internet, networking systems.
Tristen Parr: cello, electric cello, electronics.
Aaron Wyatt: violin, viola.

Concert Performances

2012 Plans
European Tour January 2012 (Germany, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Austria).
The Trilling Wire, Brisbane, Judith Wright performing arts centre (TBA).
The Stone, New York, October 2012.
3 concerts at the WA Theatre Centre.

2011
3 concert subscription series at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth, WA in 2011.
Tour of Southwestern Australia: Denmark, Albany, Northcliffe and Nannup.
New Music Network Mini-series appearances in Sydney (Conservatorium) and Canberra (Street Theatre).
Tour to New Zealand (north Island), July.

2010
Technology Showcase by Decibel at Apple Mac conference “Createworld”, Brisbane.
The Australasian Musicological Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Still and Moving Lines, Shopfront, Judith Wright Contemporary Arts Centre, Trilling Wire Series, Brisbane, WA. Works by Alvin Lucier.
Still and Moving Lines, RRR Studios (VIC) and Eugene Goosens Hall (NSW), as part of the Liquid Architecture Festival of Sound Arts. Works by Alvin Lucier.
Mixed Program, Australasian Computer Music Conference, ANU, ACT. Works by Hope, Vickery, Riddoch and Lucier.
Still and Moving Lines, music of Alvin Lucier, Music Auditorium, WAAPA, Perth, WA.

2009
Mixed Program, main Theatre, Queensland Conservatoirum, CreateWorld conference, Brisbane, QLD. Works by Hope, Vickery, James.
SomAcoustica, Calloway Auditorium, UWA, Scale Variable Chamber Music Series, Perth, WA.
Tape It!, Music Auditorium, WAAPA, Totally Huge New Music Festival, Perth, WA.

Tours
2011                                    Sydney/Canberra, South West Western Australia, New Zealand.
2010                                    Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.

Recordings
“disintegration: Mutation” CD, hellosQuare, (ACT-AUS),( Jan 2011) works by Cat Hope and Lindsay Vickery.
“A dark and viscerally unsettling release,” The Wire, May 2011.
“Disintegration: Mutation is absorbing and resolved work that extends the aesthetic that has emerged over recent years in blending the sonically possible into the demandingly-but-satisfyingly musical. The CD’s title suggests Decibel’s approach —the disintegration of conventional music and the mutation of sound into new forms.” Realtime Magazine, April 2011.

“Still and Moving Lines” CD, Pogus (New York USA) (complete, release due Jan 2012) four unreleased works by Alvin Lucier, performed by Decibel.

“Static Ecstatic”, vinyl LP, Heartless Robot Productions. Australian works (5 of 6 West Australian) on the theme of ‘drone’ performed and commissioned by Decibel. Includes work by ensemble members as well as Alan Lamb and Julian Day.
Commissioned Australian Artists
Lindsay Vickery, Cat Hope, Warren Burt, Chris De Groot, Kynan Tan, Tim Beahans, Dan Thorne, Austin Buckett, Samuel Dunscombe, Adam Trainer, Julian Day, Malcom Riddoch, Stuart James, Thomas Meadowcoft.

Other achievements

- 4 live to air recordings (PICA program 1, Tape It, Still and Moving Lines x 2),for  ABC CLassic FM, including interviews with director, Cat Hope in Perth and Sydney.
- Nominated in top 5 concerts of 2009 by Jason Kenny in Drum Media magazine.

Press Quotes

“adventurous, inquisitive, challenging. They both honour and sabotage modernist traditions. They’re at times uplifting, at others, terrifying, and almost always, thought-provoking. Decibel are doing things that literally no-one else in the state, even the country, is doing, and as such they are as precious as the gold in our proximate desert plains.” Lyndon Blue, Cool Perth Nights, June 2011

“Steeped in the form and ritual of classical music, Decibel certainly displayed its share of edge and attitude.” Adam Trainer, Drum Media, November 2009

“A completely wonderful immersive evening from Decibel, who are filling a vital niche in the Perth music scene” Rosalind Appleby, The West Australian Newspaper, November 2009.

“An incredible combination of great instrumental performers and intuitive electronic musicians.” Ben Hamblin, Resonate Magazine, September 2009.

MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES

Cat Hope – Musical Director, Flute, electronics

Cat Hope is a multidisciplinary artist based in Perth, Western Australia whose work is grounded in sound. Trained as a classical flautist she later moved to bass playing, noise, improvisation, rock, video art and installation. She is a passionate performer and researcher with an active international publication and touring schedule, as a soloist, academic and in her groups Abe Sada, Decibel and sound art collective Metaphonica. Her research interests include low frequency sound, film music, WA new music archiving and the relationship between acoustic and electronic instruments.She is featured in an upcoming book on Australian Women Composers written by Rosalind Appleby, and is currently the CREATEC Post Doctoral Research Fellow at WAAPA, ECU.

 

Lindsay Vickery  – saxaphone, clarinet, compostion, electronics

Vickery is an active as a composer and performer across Europe, the USA and Asia.  He is also a highly regarded performer on reed instruments and electronics, touring as a soloist and with ensembles in many parts of the world. He was a founding member of Alea New Music Ensemble (1987-92), Magnetic Pig (1992-), GRIT (2001-), US-based multimedia group SQUINT (2002-) and most recently HEDKIKR (2002-). He has been a visiting artist at STEIM (NLD), HarvestWorks (NY), the MATA festival (NY), CEMI (U of NorthernTexas), University of Illinois, Kyoto Seika University, San Diego State University, Audio Art Festival (Krakow), the DC International Dance and Improv Festival and RPI (Troy).  He is also known for his composition and performance with interactive electronics – particularly the MIBURI wireless MIDI Jump suit, and more recently, with graphic scores. He Lectures in music at WAAPA, ECU.

Stuart James – piano, percussion, composition, electronics.

Stuart is widely considered to be Perth’s main authority on the interactive programming language, MaxMSP, which he teaches at WAAPA in the Music Technology course there. Stuart has a Masters in Creative Arts involving research into correlations between sound and video using methodologies relating to Wave Terrain Synthesis. Stuarts more recent compositions and performances have also stemmed from this research and also other areas including granular and frequency domain synthesis. He has performed in a number of new music ensembles, most recently in the Cloud Orchestra, which performed a concert of Lindsay Vickery’s works at Scale Variable in June 2008. Stuart has also had commissions from Tetrafide Percussion, the ABC, and has had performances of his work by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, WASO New Music Ensemble, and Michael Kieran Harvey. As a performer he has been featured in Silky Krusher and the Sex, Jonathan Mustards ensembles, and a range of self produced concerts of his own works and piano performances.

Tristen Parr – Violoncello

Tristen Parr has recorded for the ABC, premiering new works of young Western Australian composers. At present he is a core member of the Perth music scene as a live performer, string arranger studio musician composer/collaborator and teacher.   Tristen is a member and creative partner of two prominent Perth groups -  Schvendes and Fall Electric.  This has seen Tristen receive a nomination for Best Instrumentalist in the W. A Music Industry Awards in 05 and receiver of the award in 06, 07 and 08. Outside of these main projects Tristen has been involved in writing and performing music for dance, film, theatre and performance art. Recent composition and performance engagements include Get Yourself Some Art (dance) and Gertrude The Cry at the Blue Room and Deathtrap (theatre) at PICA.

 

Aaron Wyatt – Violin/viola

Aaron is an accomplished violist who appears regularly with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. While classically trained, he maintains an avid interest in other genres and greatly enjoys being involved in new music projects. He has played with the Döggöx Art Orchestra, an eighteen piece jazz/funk ensemble and has directed the Resonator Quartet in a performance of?Michelle Van der Aa’s Quadrivial for the 2008 Totally Huge New Music Festival. More recently he played for the premier of  composer Chris De Groot’s new work Ménilmontant – music for the 1927 silent film by Dmitri Kirsanoff.

 

Dr. Malcolm Riddoch – electronics, percussion

Malcolm has been actively involved in electronic music and new media artists since 1990 and is currently lecturing in Music Technology at WAAPA, Edith Cowan University and also works in the multimedia industry specializing in interactivity for the internet as well as digital audio production.
He has created soundtracks for a range of projects, including the BRUN: RUSSIAN SPACE SHUTTLE exhibition in Sydney, ANAMPRPHOSIS Butterfly exhibition at Perth Zoo and a series of performances as ENERGIA; most recently DEMOLITION SEQUENCE at the Alphabet City Artrage Bakery Program
He was an early member of Perth art noise group Thou Gideon where he plays industrial percussion. He is a skilled web master and is pleased to offer these skills to the DECIBEL project.