Search - Michael Askill :: Rhythm in the Abstract: Selected Pieces 1987-1999

Michael Askill says his favorite compositions are the ones that have a narrative quality. Rhytmn in the Abstract: Selected Pieces 1987-1999 uses his music to tell the story of his varied career.This set of recordings covers more than a decade and includes musicians as diverse as composer/synthesist Nigel Westlake, Japanese koto player Satsuki Odamura, and the Australian Aboriginal musician David Hudson. Listeners who know of Askill's many recordings for Celestial Harmonies and Black Sun may recognize some of these pieces, but this compilation also includes some revised versions of previously released works, and offers a first glimpse at Askill's new score for Graeme Murphy's Sydney Dance Company, a work that uses digital samples from Celestial Harmonies' impressive roster of traditional world music recordings.Askill's music draws as heavily on world music traditions as it does on Western jazz, rock, and classical music. And being a percussionist, he says, definitely colors the types of music he creates. "I feel most comfortable composing - in the traditional sense, on manuscript - with percussion instruments." As this compilation shows, though, there is little traditional in Askill's compositions. "that's why I work with the people I do," he explains. "They bring me the improvising traditions that they are a part of - Riley Lee's Japanese flute, or Omar Faruk Tekbilek's Turkish instruments - and improvise within my context."To the listeners who have enjoyed Askill's work with the group Synergy Percussion, or his evocative scores for the Sydney Dance Company, such distinctions won't matter much. It is enough to marvel at Askill's eclectic blend of Asian and Western musics (a natural one for an Australian composer), and of electric and acoustic instruments (natural for a composer of the late 20th century).