Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Where Psychedelic Rock Meets Classical Music on Drugs

If you’ve ever wondered what classical music on drugs would sound like, look no further than the mind-bending sounds of PROFESSOR BAD TRIP. With its cutting edge style, the award-winning Ensemble Offspring (Best Performance AMC/APRA Art Music Awards 2011) will again thrill audiences with this triple-bill Australian premiere in June. Composed by the Italian artist Fausto Romitelli who died prematurely in 2004, PROFESSOR BAD TRIP is where psychedelic rock lives on. The Italian composer was inspired by the genius Gianluca Lerici a.k.a. Professor Bad Trip and his psychedelic cartoons, most notably his adaptation of William Burrough’s Naked Lunch (Il Pasto Nudo). Also influential was poet Henri Michaux, particularly for his writings under the influence of mescaline and other psychedelic substances. PROFESSOR BAD TRIP gives you that hallucinogenic feeling through music!

Complimenting this large-scale masterpiece is a new work by hot young European composer Simon Steen-Andersen. In this solo, Geoffrey Gartner will be whammying up his cello to create something fresh and whacky.

The radical classical mainstream continues with the playful loops of London-based Australian composer, Matthew Shlomowitz in a wild program of progressive new music that is huge in Europe right now. Three works never before heard in Australia will bring together electric bass, electric guitar, strings, trumpets, keyboard and percussion in a range of electronically manipulated and distorted sounds that will leave you, well… tripping.

Performers: Ensemble Offspring: Conductor: Roland Peelman | Flute: Lamorna Nightingale | Clarinet: Jason Noble | Oboe: Ngaire de Korte | Bassoon: Rob Llewellyn | Trumpet: Melanie McLoughlan| Piano: Zubin Kanga | Percussion: Claire Edwardes | Electric Guitar: Geoffrey Morris | Violin: James Cuddeford & Veronique Serret | Viola: James Eccles | Cello: Geoffrey Gartner | Double & Electric Bass: Dave Symes | Sound Engineer: Bob Scott | Damien Ricketson & Claire Edwardes: Artistic Directors

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website

Featured artists

• Music of Matthew Shlomowitz
• Performer Ensemble Offspring