NB this is an audition copy of the work and is not for sale

The Ears Outside My Listening Room
by Colin Black

The Ears Outside My Listening Room, an oral history in the form of a musical/radiophonic composition in four movements Family, City, Country & Creation.

It's about people, it's about the differences between us and the common themes that bind us. There's no actors, presenters or politicians, there's no contrived speeches or text. It's a work starring real Australians. It tries to testify how it feels to live now. It trades in the real currency of our living culture. Currency meaning not only the richness and wealth, but also the liquidity and transient nature of living Australian culture. It takes a snapshot of our country, our people, our time, our diversity, our culture and tries to preserve it in an album of emotive musical, sonic collage.

Music entwines the recordings of real Australian's speaking voices and soundscape to make a patchwork sonic quilt that can be passed between the generations. These are the words and voices of the ghosts of tomorrow. Like fingerprints and DNA each voice is unique and this piece will help the detectives of tomorrow to look back and understand the spirit of their forefathers.

The work contains the whispers of a 5 year old child's wishes, indigenous dreams for the future uttered in Pitjantjatjara and Arrente, a 90 year old lady's unfulfilled childhood hopes, the passion of celebration, the sound of the farmer's battling voice and responses to the big question, how did we get here? It contains voices form all over our country, from the homeless to Professors, farmers to accountants, highfliers and job seekers share the same sonic space. It explores our multicultural identity in terms of languages spoken within Australian homes.

My inspirations for this work came from recordings of my childhood and in particular a cassette recording of my late grandfather talking about his life, in his words, with his voice. When I listen to this tape, it feels like his spirit is with me and I am reminded of where I came from, my place in the world and how I have changed. I see that the ABC is to Australia what that cassette tape is to me.

The Ears Outside My Listening Room, is exactly that, the ears of the world outside my listening room (where I listen to my tapes), the ears that I use to listen into snippets of other people's lives outside my walls. It tries to answer the question; do we all feel the same things in our isolated, boxed world of suburbs, houses, flats and farms?

This work explores the use of Australian voices as templates to influence (in differing degrees), the rhythms and tones of the music., In preliminary recordings I have particularly noted the multicultural colours of Australian tones and the differences in pace and place. The rhythms and tones of rural Australia differ enormously to those of the city. In fact there is an aural journey that can take you from the inner city to the suburbs to the semi-rural communities and out to the rural areas. It is evident in the way we speak, the things we say and how we say them.