Match is a percussion
duo formed by two fine Australian percussionists,
Daryl Pratt, the head of percussion
at Sydney Conservatorium, and Alison
Eddington, who won the ABC Young Performer
of the Year in 1995. Eddington is also
a member of the Synergy percussion ensemble;
she gave the Australian premiere of
Michael Torke’s percussion concerto,
Rapture. Pratt has quite a wide
range of interests: besides teaching,
he is a composer with a fine portfolio
of works and plays in the electric jazz
group, Sonic Fusion.
This disc is Match’s
debut on disc. The duo is characterised
by Eddington and Pratt’s decision to
focus on two main percussion keyboard
instruments; Pratt plays vibraphone
and Eddington marimba. Though the disc
features other instruments as well,
these two form the backbone of the music
and give the recital a coherence of
sound lacking in some other percussion
anthologies. This was something that
I liked and the sound-world that the
duo evokes is very apt for the disc’s
title, Water Settings, but not
everyone may welcome being restricted
in this way.
Four of Pratt’s own
pieces are included on the disc. Modern
Dance and Tangos Nuevos II
both come from Pratt’s Dance Suite,
though the notes give no reason for
the other two movements of the suite
being omitted. Written in 2002, these
are jazz-influence pieces which reflect
Pratt’s background and include opportunities
for improvisation. The results are attractive,
tuneful and highly atmospheric; both
pieces play with fragments of melody
and Modern Dance gives hints
of both swing and jazz.
A Room in the House
was written in 2004 and calls for four
hands on a single vibraphone. It is
Pratt’s response to a call for new works
"exploring new techniques on a
single percussion instrument".
Pratt uses a variety of techniques to
try to extend the expressive abilities
of the instrument. These involve a variety
of stroking techniques, a wide range
of beaters and blending the instrument
with other instruments such as cow bells,
flexatone and voice. The realm thus
evoked is fascinating and atmospheric
with dark hints of the night.
Water Settings
is a substantial three-part work which
Pratt wrote specifically for Match.
It reflects Pratt’s interest in creating
musical landscapes in response to the
Australian landscape, specifically the
Eastern seaboard. A variety of other
instruments (gongs, noah bells, crotales
and cymbals) are combined with the vibraphone
to create a dazzling, shifting landscape.
Besides writing four
pieces for the group, Pratt has also
arranged Peter Sculthorpe’s Djilile.
The piece was originally written for
piano in 1989, adapted for the Synergy
percussion quartet in 1990 and has now
re-surfaced in Pratt’s version for vibraphone
and marimba. The name of the piece would
seem to translate as ‘whistling duck
on a billabong’ and is based on a theme
which Sculthorpe adapted from an indigenous
Australian melody originally recorded
in the 1950s. Sculthorpe seems to have
a fondness for the melody as he has
used it in a number of pieces. Despite
the its origins this work has an attractive,
quiet funkiness.
The duo include two
new works by other composers. Michael
Smetanin’s Finger Funk was commissioned
by Match in 2004. A striking feature
of the piece is that the players use
only their fingers and thumbs to play
their instruments; no mallets are used
at all, though sometimes they utilise
rubber pads on their thumbs to aid attack.
Perhaps because of this rather particular
method of playing, the resulting instrumental
sound often evokes a haunted night;
sometimes the mood drifts into rhythmic
funk, but you feel that the night music
element is never far away. This is a
fascinating work.
Pratt and Eddington
made a percussion duo version of Andrew
Ford’s Composition in Blue, Grey
and Pink, which they performed in
2003. They have followed this up with
Ford’s The Crantock Gulls which
was written specially for them. The
title refers to the village of Crantock
in Cornwall, where the piece was begun.
Match are a percussion
duo to watch and on this record display
admirable virtuosity. It says much of
their musicianship that this virtuosity
is put to the service of the music;
they do not try to dazzle us just for
virtuosity’s sake. The disc showcases
Daryl Pratt’s talents, but they have
included some fine pieces by other Australian
composers.
Robert Hugill
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Match percussion duo (Darryl Pratt, Alison
Eddington) 
