Pretty Things (Decibel New Music Ensemble)

PICA

As World War II drew to a close, Italian partisans killed Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, whose mutilated bodies were suspended by their feet in front of a Milanese petrol station.

Scott Walker's Clara (Benito's Dream) is a response to Petacci's death, given a performance that was sonically compelling and visually unforgettable.

In the absence of a human corpse at this Decibel concert, we saw instead half a pig carcass which at intervals was energetically socked by Mace Francis to the accompaniment of, among other instruments, ocarinas and an acoustic guitar.

No less memorable was Cat Hope's Kuklinski's Dream, a response in sound to the many contract murders perpetrated by the so-called Iceman. Here, we listened to screeches, screams and groans, some of it simulated by a bow drawn over viola strings in a way that set the teeth on edge.

I particularly liked Ross Bolleter's Deviance, another of his pieces for so-called "ruined" pianos. A decrepit upright from the Murchison had its strings, keys and soundboard variously tapped, stroked, plucked and thumped by fingers and various implements to the simultaneous pre-recorded sounds from yet another ruined piano.

Towards the close of the piece, the piano was surrounded by Stuart James and other players, calling to mind a flock of benevolent vultures picking at a musical carcass.

Chris de Groot uses "ruined" LPs as a crucial factor in his Agerasia. On stage were two persons who periodically placed a turntable arm on what sounded like sand-strewn LPs, resulting in a cacophony of crackles, pops and screeches.

I very much admired the cimbalom playing of Josh Webster in Lindsay Vickery's Hunting Pack which was also admirable for fine work on the cello by Tristan Parr. Vickery's piece purports to capture "the terrifying, nightmarish collusion of the hunting pack" but, on first hearing, I could not readily come to this conclusion. Perhaps this intent will become clearer on further hearings.