raven – postfolkrocktronica by Peter Hollo

Two recent collaborations recently saw the light of day on SoundCloud.

I've known Philippe Petit "on the internet" for yonks, and finally got to meet him when he came to Sydney in January. We played a set together and wanted to continue the musical dialogue. Hence this first work, which for now I've called Opus 1:

We are working on bringing Philippe back to Australia in the near future.

Meanwhile, in May this year I took part in a gig as part of UTS's Diffuse series at the Bon Marche Studio, with a focus on improv. We decided to play continuously, with each performer playing approximately 5 minutes each with approximately 5 minute duos as segues. Presented here is my "15 minutes of fame", with my entry in the denoument of Gail Priest's wonderful feedback-with-glasses-of-water segment, through my looped solo cello scrapes and squeaks and smacks, joined by Alon Ilsar's amazing gesture-controlled sound processing and live beats, until I bowed out. It was a pretty inspiring experience.

I present for you: snoring cello, processed glitchy cello, multi-tracked slightly-klezmer cello, all of which has been put to service in accompanying some wonderful animations by 2nd year UTS Animation students, showing projected in hi-def on a warehouse facade at Pier 4, Walsh Bay (STC, Sydney Dance, Sydney Writers' Fest etc) as part of Vivid!

Listen here, and please go and check it out in person if you can!

Illustration by Craig Carry
Mike Carry has posted a long review and article on New resolution along with a long interview with me at his site Fracutre Air.

The debut Raven record is entitled ‘New Resolution’, which showcases a masterful artist at work. Many of the tracks are recorded live in one take; the magic sparks of spontaneity diffuse across the studio’s space and into the atmosphere of the listener’s world…

Read the whole thing here.

To celebrate the new year and my birthday on the 2nd of January, I decided to collect all my tracks from 2012 and release them as a new album: New resolution.
Most tracks have appeared on my SoundCloud or on compilations through the year, but appear in slightly different edits, remastered and sequenced for a 52 minute musical journey, with the help of Telafonica, who let me remix them, and Mannheim Rocket, who remixed me.

Stream the whole thing below, and cough up a few bucks if you think it's worth it. I do, but I'm biased.

The excellent Ears Have Ears on FBi (presenter Brooke Olsen and producer Scarlett Di Maio) recently asked me to contribute to their series of experimental soundtracks. My trio Haunts created one a month or so back (listen to Night Begins on SoundCloud), and they have a stack of other awesome Australian artists up on their SoundCloud.

I created a new 12 minute Raven track featuring piano recorded in our living room, with the sound leaking up from one of Sydney's busiest roads, plus cello, electronics and beats. Initially formed from unstructured piano improv, it took shape as additional layers of piano and piano processing, then melodic and noisy cello, and finally pulsing sub-bass and 808s were added in to the mix. The result is something I'm pretty proud of, and a direction I want to explore more in coming months.
Listen here:

Here's the track I wrote for the opening of the Sydney International Animation Festival at UTS a couple of weeks ago. I wrote this piece with the express intention that it could be performed live, and played it at the opening as a live soundtrack to a delightful animation of the SIAF logo by the 1st year UTS Animation students.
It's purely cello and loop pedal, all layers played & recorded live in one take.

Next major work to appear will be my "soundtrack" to a non-existent film, appearing this Thursday the 1st of November on FBi's Ears Have Ears, sometime between 9 & 11pm. It'll go up on SoundCloud a little after it's broadcast – very much contrasting with this work, it's dark and minimalist, with layers of piano and processed piano, cello, and electronics.