Ellen Fullman with Theresa Wong

An iconic American figure in experimental music, Ellen Fullman is the creator of the Long String Instrument. She brushes her rosin-coated fingers across dozens of metallic strings, as she traverses its 25-metre span. Through this stunning installation, Fullman places the performers and audience inside a giant resonating chamber, transforming Sydney Town Hall into her unique musical instrument.

Fullman’s instrument produces a sitar-like drone one minute and an ethereal echo the next. Harbors, a collaboration with composer and cellist Theresa Wong, draws inspiration from the soundscapes as well as the stories and atmospheres that manifest around such bodies of water that propagate exchange. Harbors “evokes ghosts of renegade string sections and Ennio Morricone’s harmonica motifs. The increasingly colorful mélange of wavering notes and their errant reflections sound like the thrum of vibrant light” (Sam Lefebvre, Impose Magazine).

Wong electronically captures and plays the extended harmonics of the cello strings, adding layers to Fullman’s resonances in a bed of undulating overtones.

Opening for Ellen Fullman on the Friday evening is Chris Abrahams. Widely praised for his work with Australian improvisational trio The Necks, Abrahams subsequent exploration of the organ has elevated the potential of the instrument. Using the unique physical and acoustic properties of Sydney Town Hall, he will explore the tonal and harmonic potentials of the venue’s iconic pipe organ through expansive, enveloping solos.

On Saturday evening Korean cellist Okkyung Lee will be in support. Easily one of the most exploratory and elegant cellists on the planet, she has forged a profoundly personal sonic universe that is equal parts harmony and extended technique. Her work is as spellbinding as it is boundary-less.

Presented in association with Room40.

Photo: Kjeldo