Agglomeration of Measurement (Album)

Australian master percussionist Eugene Ughetti teams up with composers Anthony Pateras, Liza Lim, Robin Fox and others to create a series of deeply textured and intensely executed solo percussion works. Exploding out the ideas of his chosen instruments, Ughetti’s work is relentless in its search for new articulations and extended read-ings, seeking entirely new methods of approaching percussion.

“This album is a distillation of the many long-term relationships I’ve had with Australian composers. The music forms a body of work, spanning fifteen years, that provides a glimpse into my percussive language and a twenty-first century Australian percussion sound.

In many instances the pieces on this album were the germ for larger scale compositions and collaborations, forming some of the major works for Speak Percussion, the organisation I currently direct. Sitting around these solo works are other percussion solos, trios, quartets, sextets, twelvetets, mixed ensemble works and an opera. Each of these projects have cumulatively deepened my creative rapport with the represented artists.

Major works of note include Liza Lim’s Atlas of the Sky (opera for solo soprano, 3 percussion soloists and 20 person crowd), Alex Garsden’s tolle lege, tolle lege… (spatialised percussion quartet with electronics), a co-compo-sition with Robin Fox entitled TRANSDUCER (quartet, live electronics and eight channel speaker system), James Rushford’s Whorl Would Equal Reaches (percussion sextet with electronics), Thomas Meadowcroft’s So Long Country (mixed ensemble and electronics) and Anthony Pateras’ Flesh and Ghost (percussion twelvetet), among others.

I am attracted to sound that speaks more to concept than to musical convention and in performance more than concert. In Agglomeration of Measurement my artistic practice is articulated through experimental techniques exploring feedback, microtonality, micro-percussion, post instrumental practice and an investigation into broad-er non-musical concepts.

I am indebted to these composers for their exceptional artistry and collaboration and to Speak Percussion for providing the extraordinary platform for these works to flourish.” Eugene Ughetti

“It’s a ridiculously diverse album that spans some fifteen years and involves collaborations with some really notable Australian composers. Techniques vary dramatically across the album, really highlighting the diversity of both percussive technique and compositional approach.” Bob Baker Fish, Cyclic Defrost

Album track list:

Twin Resistance James Rushford

March Static Thomas Meadowcroft

TRANSDUCER (finale) Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

Tremolo Alexander Garsden

An Elemental Thing Liza Lim

Hypnagogics Anthony Pateras