Art Classics: Electric Counterpoint

Powerhouse legends of the Brisbane contemporary music scene, Robert Davidson, Samuel Vincent, Thomas Green and the Black Square Quartet, team up to present an exhilarating program of cutting-edge masterpieces. Séraphîta, by experimental rock guru Trey Spruance (of Mr. Bungle fame) uniquely explores ancient and medieval themes and musical styles through an electric guitarist’s lens. Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint presents a dazzling aural array of immersive electric guitar sound. Australian composer Michael Bakrnčev’s String Quartet No 1, originally influenced by Nirvana’s infamous Unplugged in New York MTV set and drawing on a panorama of inspiration from Bartok to Powderfinger, is given its world premiere. And to conclude, Frederic Rzewski’s monumental Coming Together combines electric guitar, bass guitar, string quartet and spoken voice for an epic setting of the letters of Sam Melville, an inmate killed during the 1971 Attica Prison Rebellion, in this hard-hitting diatribe of turbocharged minimalism.