The duo Match was formed
in 2001. Both its members are prominent
performers on the Australian music scene
(and beyond); both also teach at the
Sydney Conservatorium. Daryl Pratt was
born and raised in California, moving
to Australia in 1985; a native Australian,
Eddington was born in Perth. This is
Match’s first CD, though both its members
have recorded pretty extensively in
other contexts. Here they play a programme
of Australian pieces – or, at any rate,
of pieces by composers based in Australia.
Much of the material
is centred on the use of the vibraphone
(played by Pratt) and the marimba (played
by Eddington).
Two of the compositions
by Pratt, Modern Dance and Tangos
Nuevos II are taken from a four-part
Dance Suite. Modern Dance
makes extensive use of jazz phrasing
and rhythms; chords on the vibraphone
are counterpoised by longer melodic
lines and there are improvised passages.
It is relevant to remember that Pratt
was also a founding member of the jazz
ensemble Sonic Fiction. Flamenco-like
rhythms produce some very pleasant effects
in Tangos Nuevos II, lines
for vibraphone and marimba subtly
interwoven in a fairly traditional fashion,
reminiscent at times of Gary Burton.
More experimental is A Room in the
House, which was written for the
Percussion Arts Society International
Convention of 2005 and is for four hands
at a single vibraphone – a vibraphone
played with various unorthodox ‘mallets’.
A very distinctive sound-world results
– metallic whispers, a ringing of bells,
sustained notes, odd rattlings and sudden
swoops of pitch; at times effect seems
to take precedence over musical cause,
but there is much that is strangely
beautiful. The most substantial of Daryl
Pratt’s compositions is the one that
gives the CD its title. Water Settings
is in three movements, and takes the
form of a musical response to the landscapes
of Australia’s Eastern coast. The first
movement, ‘Tide Pool’, uses gongs, bells,
crotales and cymbals alongside the vibraphone
and evokes the interaction of light
and water and the scurrying, swirling
life of the tide pool. In the central
movement, ‘Waves’, patterns of ostinati
‘represent’ the rhythms of the waves
and in the final section, ‘Seven Mile
Beach’, a relatively quiet walk along
the beach, as it were, disappears beneath
ever more crashing and tumultuous wave
rhythms. The whole is a striking (the
pun can’t be avoided) sequence, which
both makes musical sense and is also
programmatic in an unusual and interesting
way.
Peter Sculthorpe’s
Djilile (the title apparently
means "whistling duck on a billabong")
was originally composed for piano, was
then adapted for a percussion quartet
and has now been arranged by Daryl Pratt
for - mainly - vibraphone and marimba.
Its melodic basis is adapted from an
aboriginal melody collected in the 1950s.
This is a memorable, subtle piece, suggestive
and understated.
Andrew Ford - who was
born in Liverpool and studied with Edward
Cowie and John Buller before moving
to Australia in 1983 – is represented
by The Crantock Gulls, Crantock
being in Cornwall. The gulls are noisy,
the sea is rough, the drumming drives
hard.
Michael Smetanin’s
Finger Funk might win a prize
for the best title on the CD; it is
also one of the best compositions. It
is written for a single five-octave
marimba, played by two performers –
who use only their fingers occasionally
supplemented by rubber pads attached
to the thumbs. The resulting sounds
are surprisingly varied in dynamics,
their patterning by turns graceful and
(yes) funky. An intriguing and enjoyable
performance.
Though I haven’t yet
been able to listen to the whole CD
at a single sitting without my attention
wandering, I have had a good deal of
pleasure from dipping into it to listen
again to particular pieces. The virtuoso
skills of Pratt and Eddington are obvious
– not because they flaunt them, but
because they can present stylistically
various and complex music convincingly
and persuasively.
Glyn Pursglove
See also reviews by Jonathan
Woolf and Robert
Hugill
AVAILABILITY
Buywell.com
Match Percussion: Daryl Pratt, Alison Eddington
