Listening Session no. 5

Listening Session no.5 is the 5th performance in this series of concerts. For this concert we are bringing the acclaimed Mongolian musician Bukhu Ganburged to Witta. As with the previous Listening Sessions it's a performance that focusses on really listening, an absolutely essential part of creating music in the moment. The audience is invited to listen deeply in the same way and to witness the creative process of building a new piece of music in this 'live' collaborative way rather than focussing on the end product. Nothing will have been written or rehearsed beforehand. In this case 3 musicians will create 90 minutes of new music by listening deeply to each other while improvising over a drone. Nothing will have been discussed about the unfolding music except to choose the pitch of the drone that will be sounding underneath the musicians. The musicians involved are all experienced improvisors and come with variety of musical experiences and training. It is as though the audience has been invited into the collective musical mind of this group of musicians for the duration of the collective improvisation. It is this 'Process' of creating the music rather than the 'Product' of the completed composition that takes precedence.

The 3 musicians are: Bukhchuluun (Bukhu) Ganburged (Mongolian Horse Head Fiddle and Harmonic Overtone Throat Singing), Tunji Beier (South Indian and other percussion) and Linsey Pollak (bass clarinet and self created woodwind instruments).

Bukhu Ganburged: Bukhu performs the folk musics of Mongolia exploring the aural dimensions of sounds generated by traditional instruments and harmonic overtone vocal techniques. He combines virtuosic Morin Khuur (Horse Head Fiddle) and Khuumii (Harmonic Overtone Throat Singing) to bring a contemporary take on the tradition of Mongolian bards of ancient times. He is a former member of the Morin Khuur Ensemble, Khangal Quartet and Domog folk bands of Mongolia touring extensively for audiences all over Europe as well as Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia. Bukhu embodies the spirit of reinterpreted narratives through verse, with an enchanting mix of folk traditions and contemporary influences woven into the fabric of his arrangements. He is also an accomplished improvisor and for this reason he has been invited to travel from Sydney for Listening Session no. 5.

Tunji Beier: At the age of ten Tunji was studying Yoruba drumming in Nigeria. Six years later he travelled to Bangalore in South India to study percussion for three years at the Karnakata College of Percussion under the mentorship of Mr TAS Mani. This intense period of study enables Tunji to bring his mastery of the mridangam, kanjira, ghatam and morsing to a huge variety of projects with musicians such as: Charlie Mariano, Bill Cobham, T.A.S.Mani, R.A.Ramamani, Trilok Gurtu, and Zakir Hussain.

Linsey Pollak: Linsey is well known all around Australia as a musician, instrument maker, composer, musical director and community music facilitator. He has toured his solo shows extensively in Europe, Nth America and Asia since 1996. He established The Multicultural Arts Centre of WA and has co-ordinated five Cross-cultural Music Ensembles in three different States. He has also performed at most major Festivals around Australia and recorded over 40 albums (solo & with various groups). Over the years he has created many musical projects with 'The Listening Sessions being the most recent.