The Sewing Room, Perth
May 15, 2018

The launch of percussionist Louise Devenish’s national tour attracted a capacity crowd in Perth on Tuesday night. Devenish is head of percussion at the University of Western Australia Conservatorium and her advocacy for percussion includes a book on Australian contemporary percussion history (soon to be published by Routledge) and commissions for over 50 works for percussion. The national tour features live performances of pieces from her album Music for Percussion and Electronics, an album of experimental Australian compositions released by Tall Poppies in 2017.  Watching the music performed live makes it easier to distinguish between the electronic and percussion sounds and also gives insight into the techniques behind Devenish’s incredibly nuanced playing. The concert is complemented by visual projections by New York artist Ross Karre.

Louise Devenish

Devenish took centre stage for an uninterrupted 60 minutes, delivering complicated experimental music with poised artistry. She made the intricate polyrhythmic ratios underpinning Andrián Pertout’s Exposiciones appear naively simple, her fluid phrasing on the glockenspiel creating sweetly melodic phrases even while coordinating the complicated patterns with the electronic punctuations.

Stuart James’ Kinabuhi | Kamatayon used electronic processing to accentuate the beating reverberations...