The Bowerbird Collective, comprising violinist Simone Slattery and cellist Anthony Albrecht, received critical acclaim for their earlier multimedia project and CD Where Song Began – also a celebration of Australian birds. Compared to this earlier, straightforwardly joyful program, Life on Land’s Edge is more a call to action. Presented as part of the Nature Festival of South Australia, it brought a conservationist message to its celebration of migratory shorebirds.

Life on Land’s Edge. Photo © The Bowerbird Collective

Life on Land’s Edge is a multimedia exploration of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, which spans from Australia and New Zealand to Siberia and Alaska, and combines music with bird calls, footage of the migratory shorebirds and scenery from the flyway, and text drawn from various sources. The music performed was predominantly new, with recent music by Australian composers alongside works by Vivaldi, Philip Glass and Dai Fujikura.

The program featured two new works from Anne Cawrse. Sanctuary is the more reflective of the two, with the sustained violin and cello lines phasing in and out of poignant dissonances and unisons, then evolving into more buoyant, bird-call-like motifs. 

Chris Williams’ (Codex) on the flight of...