Circular Hymns
is the title of Which Doctor Watson?’s stage production and debut CD release.
Ancient and modern technology collide head-on in “circular hymns” , a musical journey to the ends of the earth and beyond. The didgeridoo and the digital sampler, both circular in the nature of their elements combine to reveal a new, unchartered world of music experience.
The performing musicians work outside accepted limits of taste and style conducting wild sonic research pushing the aural boundaries of poetry and song.
Didgeridoo, alto saxophone, percussion, xylophone, guitar and vocals and the spoken word are sampled live and improvised to samples to composing an eclectic collection of songs and sound sculptures that are highly original, moving and entertaining. Ballads, hymns, poems, thundering jigs and urban blues and atmospheric instrumentals offer a constant change of style and pace to the program of the circular hymns concerts and CD. Frauke Marie blesses the project with rich vocal prowess weaving otherworldly melodies and emotional intelligence into the heady mix of Which Doctor Watson musical brews. André Schulz, the mad inventor, keeps wheels from falling off the runaway train. His percussive and directorial vision forges coherency from disorder to an entity born of the darkness of original chaos.
The “circular hymns” project, written by Matthew McGrath, forged in the fulcrum of darkly joyous experimentation and exploration of sound and passion also draws on years of experience in Berlin as an Australian poet, musician and artist. Each song is built around its lyrics as texts are central to foundation. The instrumental works are delved from unfamiliar musical terrains. The didgeridoo and the “Jam Man” sampler combine to create otherworldly moving music never heard before. Songs of reflection, passion reverence and irreverence.
The circular natures of repetition in the didgeridoo, of one the world’s oldest musical instruments and the digital sampler, one of the newest, gives the project circular hymns its name.
