Donna’s new composition Permafrost is premiered at the Tilde~ New Music Festival in Melbourne. Written for and performed by Alana Blackburn.
The work is for recorders and fixed electronics. It is inspired by Alana’s comprehensive musical vocabulary with the recorder family and highlights her extensive performance experience with the instruments.
The work utilises both natural and synthesised sounds, including some recordings of Antarctic wildlife. The work aims to entwine the textures, timbres and spatial characters of the live and pre-recorded sounds. The work is inspired by the concept of ‘Permafrost’, the ‘permanently’ frozen earth found in colder climates. The predicted thawing of the permafrost is accompanied by some ominous scientific predictions for the future of our climate, ecosystems and health and was at the forefront of Hewitt’s mind as she composed this work.
Donna Hewitt 