I just got back from an event called Blur at the CarriageWorks in Sydney’s Eveleigh suburb. This is a really cool venue, it’s converted from rail works and was developed by the NSW State Goverment through Arts NSW. It has a very industrial feel and reminded me a lot of the Tate Modern in London. The original rail tracks run through and around the complex, which has been created to provide a home to contemporary arts

Anyway, the performer tonight was a guy called Timothy Constable. Timothy had a sound engineer (Bob) in the crowd and some pretty impressive instruments including an over-sized xylophone, a few drum kits, a man-sized circular structure which framed flat bells (like a triangle with the middle filled in) and another frame with smaller bells and brass shapes hanging off it.

Timothy preceded to play very minimalist and very experimental tunes on these ‘instruments’ including renditions of classical pieces, one example being Bach. The show was a combination of live performance and playback of sounds from the evening’s live performance i.e. sounds that were recorded there and then and played back in concert with what Timothy was doing on stage. It gets hard to explain, the singing was even harder to explain. While clearly a very talented musician, Timothy’s singing and song writing left a little bit to be desired.

Timothy offered up some very fast and intricate over-sized xylophone playing, which was my personal highlight. I also liked the ‘track’ Wave 08.

Timothy has been recognised and awarded by the Music Council of Australia and Freedman Fellowship. The previous winner was a recorderist. This was an interesting if somewhat frustrating night – hard to get involved with the music, which was described by a friend (who walked out before the end) as ’self indulgent’. I noticed how many times Timothy bowed – surely that is to be saved for the end of the performance but I guess one can start to feel quite self conscious up on a big stage all on one’s own.

I enjoyed the experience but this would only really appeal to a very niche and specialist audience, there are no YouTube videos out there for me to help bring this to life.

Don’t expect to see Timothy in the charts anytime soon.

Roll on April 19th when I get to see DJ sh sh sh SHADOW…

Tags: CarriageWorks, Constable, Contemporary, DJ Shadow, Experimental, Music, Timothy, Xylophone