Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

No products are available for this work

The Australian Music Centre's catalogue does not include any recordings or sheet music of this work. This entry is for information purposes only.

Materials for this work may be lodged in our collection in the future. Until then, any enquiries should be made directly to the composer/sound artist or their agent.

Work Overview

Gaze Upon the Liquid Sky pays homage to the beautiful and diverse sceneries and landscapes that Australia has to offer. The colourful and extraordinary star trails, outline of the hot red sun glows from the city lights, and ever expansive starry skies are all melted into a pot of colourful and magnificent liquid sky.

This piece is blended with the sounds of wildlife ambiance recorded at Claudie River, a location deep in the rainforest of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. At the beginning, in the still of the night, we can hear crickets and insect trills, laughing calls of Australian Wood Frogs, and gentle kooloos of the Marbled Frogmouths. The ending of the work uses the actual times of natural twilight (astronomical, nautical, and civil) at Claudie River, Cape York, to bring back daylight. The pulses and intensity of the insects slow, and the Australian Woodfrog calls become more distant within the rainforest as we begin to hear birdsongs from White-faced Robin and Dusky Myzomela which brightens the forest.

First conceived in one of Victoria's longest lockdowns, this piece aims to bring our astonishing rural stars to listeners in any space or anywhere in the globe.

Work Details

Year: 2022

Instrumentation: Oboe, piano and fixed media.

Duration: 6 min.

Dedication note: for Jasper Ly & Peter Dumsday

Commission note: Commissioned by Jasper Ly for performance by Peter Dumsday, Jasper Ly.. Commissioned by Jasper Ly to pay homage to the vastness of our Australian sky.

First performance: by Jasper Ly, Peter Dumsday — 15 Apr 22. Fortyfive Downstairs, Melbourne VIC