Bringing together the textural and dynamic capabilities of the cello, with an extensive palate of sampled and abstracted found sounds, this collaboration between Australian sound artists Anthea Caddy and Thembi Soddell generates a provocative and tense sonic world. Their work embraces the nature of opposition, fusing the extremes – noise and quiet, composed and improvised, acoustic and electronic – to become a unified yet unstable sound, laced with subtlety, aggression, chaos and intrigue.

The duos unflinching dedication to exploratory music incorporates sonic, spatial and performative gestures into a singular act of extreme expression. There is a noesis involved in experiencing their live performance, a knowing that is sub-conscious, and teases the liminal points of perception and awareness.

ANTHEA CADDY (right)

Anthea Caddy has developed a distinctive set of techniques for extended cello performance, exploiting its textural and dynamic capabilities, while subverting its conventional timbre. Sensitive to the acoustic spaces she performs in, Anthea often seeks unusual environments in which to perform and record her work. Musically she draws strong reference points to new music and free improvisation, intuitively navigating the conceptual and aesthetic points of convergence and divergence between these two polar streams.

Anthea’s distinctive sound and approach to cello performance has resulted in collaborative contributions to a number of projects in a diversity of contexts. Her music has been used by sound designer Darrin Verhagen for productions for the MTC and Chunky Move and is currently working on sound for an Australian feature film with sound designer Francois Tetaz. She has also performed at many major national sound-art festivals including Straight out of Brisbane, Liquid Architecture, What is Music?, Articulating Space, the Now Now and Immersion. Recent compositions can be found on CD's published by the Australian Computer Music Association and Liquid Architecture. She recently completed studies in sound at Media Arts, RMIT University.

THEMBI SODDELL (left)

Thembi Soddell’s solo work lies deeply rooted in the density and complexity of one's emotional world. Drawing inspiration from dreams and personal psychology, she works primarily with the sampler to manipulate and abstract the external world creating both a vicious and alluring sonic experience. With a focus on extreme texture and depth variation, she plays with the limits of audible dynamics, pushing the threshold of both silence and noise, toying with the listener’s sense of expectation. Her compositional technique has a distinct, highly stylised edge, rigid and concisely constructed. At times referential of electroacoustic and classical composition, yet adding components of sheer noise and musique concrete. Thembi’s work has been reviewed internationally and is regularly sought for inclusion in experimental festivals and curated events.

Based in Melbourne, Thembi is an active member of
Australia’s sound art community, having performed at all major festivals on the east coast of Australia and toured regionally and nationally promoting her 2 solo CD releases. Her work was featured in Variable Resistance: 10 hours of Sound from Australia at the San Francisco MOMA, and can be found on many compilations including Liquid Architecture’s WIRE sampler and Dorobo Records Document 03. In 2000 she won a Melbourne Fringe Festival Award for a collaborative 8-channel sound installation, The Sound of Your Name is a Song. Thembi is a graduate with first class honours in sound from RMIT University’s Fine Art Department and also assists in running the new Australian experimental music label, Cajid Media.

Full CV at http://cajid.com/thembi
contact: thembi [at] cajid [dot] com