'never-ending, sugar sweet'
- Neue Zürcher Zeitung
'between academic schmalz and avantgarde-pop'
- Zitty Magazine, Berlin
Thomas Meadowcroft is a composer. His music has been
performed at various venues and festivals in Europe, USA,
Asia and Australia, including The Hawler International
Theater Festival (Iraq), Luzern Festival (Switzerland),
Carnegie Hall (NYC), The Kitchen (NYC) and Volksbühne
(Berlin). His orchestral music has been performed by,
among others, BBC SO, SWR SO and the German Film
Orchestra, Babelsberg. He has also collaborated with a
wide variety of chamber music ensembles and soloists
as well as artists from other artistic disciplines. Australian
by birth, he lives in Berlin, Germany.
ORCHESTRAL: The News in Music (Tabloid Lament) first performance: South West German Radio Symphony Orchestra (cond. Ilan Volkov), Donaueschinger Musiktage GERMANY 27' (2017) LISTEN READ
'...cheap entertainment music. And then when
somebody comes like a village idiot, whose The News
in Music is a US-American modelled news music strung
together in a Hollywood-like manner, then it hails in a
concert of 'boos'. Of course, not unjustifiably: where
is the reflection, refraction, the antithesis?'
- Badische Zeitung
'His collage of film music soundtracks and news
jingles is really super dull.'
- Bavarian Radio Classic
'The ironic intentions remain sleek and thoughtless.
Someone yells from the audience, "Bullshit!" The boos
are intense.'
- Esslinger Zeitung
'The work simply fails as it is too long... and when
there is any refraction at all, it is too late and too
tentative.'
- Fuldaer Zeitung
'Someone yelled from the audience, "Bullshit!"'
- Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung
'If (the composer) had sold each individual scrap to
television companies, he would be a millionaire.' - Musiktexte
'The piece induced a hail of boos. The composer failed in
his task to ironically circumvent TV jingles and trailers.'
- Münstersche Zeitung
'A strange brew, that hardly gives satirical sharpness
to worldly turmoil, so that the ending itself only looks
just as bad as a contrast.'
- Neue Musik Zeitung
'A scrawled, film music lament about the phenomenon
of fake news... more critical radio play than composition.' - Neue Zürcher Zeitung
'The piece still fits into the the trend of new accessibility.' - Osnabrücker Zeitung
'Sounds musically more like Hollywood.'
- RBB Kuturradio
'No bite, and sound wise too pretty.'
- Reutlinger General-Anzeiger
'So predictable the critique, so questionable the place...
Would it not have been better to make a radio piece
out of the subject? After five minutes everybody gets it.
What comes in the next fifteen minutes is diffident
annoyance.'
- Schweizer Musikzeitung
'It's a scandal that not more people were outraged.'
- Stuttgarter Zeitung
'The media-critical stuff is useless, the piece
inducing hefty booing. This type of overpowering
bombast, without change, without refraction -- that
doesn't go down well at all here.'
- Südkurier Konstanz
'a pseudo-political (and nigh interminable) lecture
with the obviousness of a grim undergraduate
Banksy.'
- Tempo
1. INTRO: COUNTRY 'N GAMELAN (selamat jalan)
2. TROPICAL CYCLONE NAMES (the best of, vol.1)
3. CYCLONE RACE CALL
4. EMPTY (SHOPPING) CENTRE
5. THE SO LONG SURF CLUB
6. OBJECT FEAR
7. IMMANUEL KANT WAS A REAL KANT
8. EMPTY (DISCURSIVE) CENTRE
9. TROPICAL CYCLONE NAMES (the best of, vol.2)
10. OUTRO: COUNTRY 'N GAMELAN (selamat tinggal)
Severe tropical cyclones may lead to the break-
down of civil order, from which, as a pretext to
returning to this order, the state can cut basic
services, so, ah, grabbed the kids, but left the
dogs, hey.
Great break.
Amped with the gnarly conditions hey.
Most peeps would cum clucked.
Not us (Kant/cunt).
Just luvin' it hey.
Wanted to fang it out back but the foamies
were messy as.
Swallowed the chowder 'n got fully raked
but didn't give a rats.
No goat boaters or bennies so stoked to the max.
The faces were crankin' 'n the barrels were
totes wick hey.
They close out for reals if ya not careful.
Sick as if ya eat it.
Still I'd get rail banged any day of the week
for corduroy like that but.
It'll be just snappers in a cuppla days.
Neck some beers 'n toke some billies this arvo.
Slay it again tomorra.
Too good.
You know.
It was just like.
Someone had run through the house.
And ripped the roof off.
We're all diving underneath the table.
Hiding underneath the mattresses.
In the middle of the night.
'Take the neighbors roof off and you see swine.'
And.
If you look down the back.
Another 500 meters.
All the way down the back there.
It's just people's furniture.
And the fella across the road.
All his furniture.
All his fridges and freezers.
They're in our backyard.
Devvo-ed.
And ah yeah.
That was it darlin'.
That's not the right music for tropical cyclones,
but.
Just sayin'.
What you need is the emptiness of the object.
As expressed, in sound.
As for the thing in and of itself.
Well.
That's just terrifying.
ORCHESTRAL: Peacemaker Tattoo first performance: Philharmonic Orchestra, Cottbus State Theatre(cond.Evan Christ),
Cottbus State Theatre, GERMANY
revised version: BBC SO (cond. Brett Dean), BBC Maida Vale Studios, London UK 6' (2016)
CHAMBER MUSIC: Walkman Antiquarian percussion duo, piano and sampler first performance: Yarn/Wire, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn USA 15' (2013)
'Australian by birth, Thomas Meadowcroft has been
based for the last twenty years in Berlin. It is the
resulting distance of the country of his birth - and
simultaneously its immediate electronic presence, by
way of cellphone and talkback radio - that informs
several of his most recent projects. Among these are
creative mockumentaries commissioned by radio
authorities in Germany (Song Buslines, 2013, evoking
bus journeys along the Australian east coast) and
Australia (Moving Homes, 2016, imagining a
catastrophic cyclone hitting the same region), as well
as pieces for concert performance. Common features,
that speak of distance and presence, include pre-
existing sources (found musical objects) as well as
electronically treated sound alongside live.
"Stated briefly," he has said, "Walkman Antiquarian
juxtaposes two technologies, the grand piano and the
24-key plastic sampler. The samples were taken from
cassette tape recordings of my father's record
collection which were sent through a series of gating
devices and tape machines in the studio, prior to
performance. The samples are then distributed to five
speakers spread across the ensemble, informing
individual players when and what to play live."
The means are even more disparate than this brief note
can convey. While the piano is hooked on loops that
might suggest a lounge pianist in the small hours,
the percussionists have recourse to a range of
instruments, both regular (snare drum, bass drum,
suspended cymbal, glockenspiel, etc.) and irregular (for
example, a small Indian bell and a tree branch). One of
the percussionists has access to a turntable rotating
at 33 r.p.m., which provides not only a visual reminder
of the LP sources but also a rhythmic one, when objects
on the turntable are struck or handled. As for the sound
on those LPs, this comes through in distorted snatches,
which - besides being used to cue the musicians - may
activate the instruments on which speakers are placed
(piano, bass drum) or, in the case of a speaker with
its covering removed, stimulate movement and sound
from wooden beads poured on to it.
Memory is coming to us from several angles and at
different removes, in a form that proceeds with the
necessity of a ritual.'
- Paul Griffiths
CHAMBER MUSIC: Rococo Pasticcio string trio and organ
CHAMBER MUSIC: Medieval Rococo alto flute, clarinet, harpsichord (doubling organ), percussion and electronics
first performance: Ensemble Offspring, Marrickville Bowls Club & Utzon Room Sydney
Opera House, Sydney AUSTRALIA12' (2016) BUY
CHAMBER MUSIC: Medieval Baroque for multiple percussionists, instruments and electronics
first performance: Alexandre Babel, Guy-Loup Boisneau, Thierry Debons, Nicolas
Didier, KNM Berlin, 'Festival Batteries IV', Geneva SWITZERLAND 25' (2013)
RADIOPHONIC: Song Buslines with: Anthony Burr (pedal steel guitar), Boram Lie (violoncello),Thomas
Meadowcroft (voice, e-piano, organ, electronics), Pat O'Shea (guest
voice on 'Radio'), Rico Repotente (guitar), Mari Sawada (violin), Daniella
Strasvogel (viola), Biliana Voutschkova (violin)
realisation: Thomas Meadowcroft
sound engineer: Thomas Monnnerjahn
producer: Marcus Gammel
text: Thomas Meadowcroft (with references to Psychological Aspects
of Geographical Moves: Homesickness and Acculturation Stress, ed.
Miranda van Tilburg and Ad Vingerhoets, Amsterdam Academic Archive) 49' (2013) LISTEN
1. RADIO (TBA-ISA)
2. INTERSTATE (TBA-SYD)
3. LONG HAUL (BNE-CNS)
4. OVERNIGHT (TNC-ISA-TSV)
5. YARN
6. MEALBREAK
7. COASTAL RUN (BYR-BNE)
8. SEE YOUS LATER
It's restaurant-style food at pub prices. You will
really be absolutely amazed at the price and the
value of the meals there...
...the thing is, all night, on the piss, having durries.
In fact, it all evens up. She'd have to. You look
good. Oh shit that was so bad because I just kept
going, had to be real lovey-dovey: "oh, darling,
I love you"...
Understanding how kids cope with homesickness
could be helpful to us all. The kids know you can't
think two things at once.
CHAMBER MUSIC: Cradles percussion duo, with live or pre-recorded Wurlitzer e-piano first performance: Speak Percussion, Maerzmusik Festival, Berlin GERMANY 8' (2013)
INSTALLATION: Opera Abstract a musical action for one performer first performance: Thomas Meadowcroft, 'Münchener Biennale', Muffathalle
Munich GERMANY 3 Minute Loop (2012)
INSTALLATION: Monaro Eden four-channel sound installation with six foot pedals (installed dimensions variable)
first install: 'Contemporary Australia: Optimism' 2008/9, Gallery of Modern Art,
GOMA Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane AUSTRALIA (2008)
CHAMBER MUSIC: Monaro Study two clarinets, Holden automobile recordings and sinetones first performance: Richard Haynes and Carl Rosman, Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne AUSTRALIA) 15' (2008) BUY
VIDEO: Weather Forecasting Opera short film with live musical accompaniment in collaboration with Peter Sabat first performance: Bavarian State Opera, Munich GERMANY 17' (2001/12)
ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENTS: Von einem der auszog, weil er sich die Miete nicht mehr leisten konnte (Opera by Dirk von Lowtzow and René Pollesch)
with: Franz Beil, Lilith Stangenberg, Martin Wuttke, Martin Gerke, Filmorchester Babelsberg, Oliver Pohl (conductor), Rundfunk-Kinderchor Berlin am Georg-Friedrich-Haendel-Gymnasium Text and direction: René Pollesch Song texts and composition: Dirk von Lowtzow Arrangements and orchestration: Thomas Meadowcroft Stage: Bert Neumann Costume: Nina Mechow Light: Lothar Baumgarte Sound: Christopher von Nathusius, William Minke Soufflage: Tina Pfurr Dramaturgy: Anna Heesen Volksbühne, Berlin GERMANY (2015)
CHORAL: Eremozoic Age Lovers narrator, organ, electronics and choir, with texts by Edward O Wilson, and the sweet nothings of anonymous lovers
first performance: Thomas Meadowcroft, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart (cond. Grete Pedersen), Theaterhaus, Stuttgart GERMANY 18' (2014)
In the midst of one of the great extinction spasms in history..."and I love you to death."
photos courtesy of:
Raphaele Mueller (Discount Minimal)
Jim Harrison - (Edward O Wilson portrait) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)]
Australian Bureau of Meteorology (map, Moving Homes) starstyling.net (stage shot,Von einem der Auszog...) australia.showbus.com (bus photo, Song Buslines) Romeo Grünfelder (still from Birth Of An Object) Franz Kimmel (Opera Abstract) Raphaele Mueller (Revox solo, Geneva) Peter Sabat (stills from Weather Forecasting Opera)
contact: t dot meadowcroft at web dot de
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