Review by John Brady..

Last night, after Contagion (Barbara Jones at School of Tropical Medicine), the Transvoyeur Performance Platform and 'Fire & Eurhythmy' - Nicole Bartos (both Mathew Street), I sat in half-way through the “premier developmental performance of a symphonic poem� by Max Eastley at the Art School. Eastley, a serene-looking, white-haired geezer, was bowing a single stringed harp. This ‘ARC’, an invention of the artist’s, supported its string with a 2 metre jointed armature and its output was further modulated by the use of twin wah-wah pedals. Eastley was assisted by a geeky-looking guy on mouse and MacBook plugged into lots of Boys’ stuff.
What a sound! – it opened the door to a new world for me. It were as if they had taken the spacey section of Electric Ladyland (Jimi Hendrix, London and New York, 1967) and expanded it into a fully formed sonic universe complete with its own horizons, chasms and fluid pulse. The experience was not of ‘listening to music’, rather Eastley was working to establish a sonic dimension that an audience could move in or out from.

The artist used both micro- and hydrophones to record his sound sources of polar winds, breaking ice and Bearded Seals during his passage through international waters on an Arctic Survey Ship. This was the third Cape Farewell trip to the High Arctic of artists, writers and educators, at the invitation of David Buckland, to explore and articulate the international issues of Global Change. The multi-site exhibition Cape Farewell: Art and Climate Change runs throughout the Biennial period. Eastley has work at the Art School and the Albert Dock. Audio Research Editions will release the Symphonic Poem on CD. The International Biennial’s curatorial template of inviting foreign artists to create artworks with Liverpool as subject has its triumphs, but it’s refreshing to find something as authentically international as Cape Farewell that isn’t more Scouseland.

John Brady CFO Independents