##Artefacts Communique 4##

Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: 1930 – 1973 is a landmark compilation CD documenting the forgotten pioneers of Australian music.  For full details, track listing and audio samples, go to http://ShameFileMusic.com

Keith Humble – The Mentor

 

Keith Humble had a major influence on the fledgling Australian experimental music scene from the late 1960s onward.  Humble established himself early in life as a child prodigy on the piano and later as a composer, before leaving Australia for Paris in the 1950s.  There he ran the alternative performance space Centre de Musique. 

 

He returned to Melbourne in 1966 and set about inspiring a new generation of composers and musicians to explore new musical ideas.  Humble established the Society for the Private Performance of New Music, which provided an outlet for young composers such as McKimm, Rooney and Clayton.  The monthly Society concerts took part in the Grainger Museum (Humble wanted to draw attention to an Australian music tradition with the connection to Grainger) and took the form of performance workshops directed by Humble and other composers .  He also took up a teaching post at Melbourne University (where his students included Ron Nagorcka) and taught in San Diego in the early 1970s.  Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: 1930 – 1973 features a piece Humble created during his time in San Diego.  “And Tomorrow” was recorded the San Diego University’s Electronic Music studio, and is believed to be a computer piece for an unrealised opera.

 

Humble’s compositional palate ranged from avant-garde music to electronic works to his vast Nunique events, which involved rock bands, lectures, dramatic performances and string quartets all taking place simultaneously according to a detailed plan.  Most significantly, Humble mentored several young composers who would form the next generation of Australian experimental music.  He set the scene in the late 1960s that made the later burst of activity in Melbourne possible, including institutions like the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre.  He pioneered the La Trobe University Music Department, which in turn brought another musical ‘lightning rod’ to Australia in Warren Burt.  Humble died in 1995.

 

 

Hear some of the equipment Humble used during these times at the Brisbane and Melbourne Artefacts launches in the coming 2 weeks, where Robin Fox will be performing on these analogue synthesisers, as part of the Liquid Architecture Festival:

 

Friday 6 July, Brisbane Powerhouse, from 7:30pm – Robin Fox and others

 

Friday 13 July, North Melbourne Town Hall, from 7:30pm – Robin Fox on analogue synthesisers again, and a panel discussion on the history of experimental music with Robin, Pauline Oliveros, Warren Burt & Rainer Linz.

 

Pre-order your copy of Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: 1930 – 1973 compilation CD for the special price of AU$23ppd (US$17.30ppd) from http://ShameFileMusic.com .  This special deal ends this Friday!.