2019 — albums — jenny duck-chong

Produced by Halcyon
Recorded at Trackdown Scoring Stage 6 & 8 March, 10 & 12 April, 17 & 18 May 2017
Engineering and editing: Evan McHugh
Editing, mixing and mastering: Daniel Brown
Photo: Linden Gledhill
Graphic design: Liz Duck-Chong

Digital release by Halcyon on 1 June 2019
CD release by Halcyon on 31 August 2019

Available as mp3 download from the Halcyon store
Available as CD from the Halcyon store
Available for streaming here

For additional audio and video material click here

Waves IV, the latest in Halcyon’s ongoing series of self-released EPs, features significant contemporary works for voice by three distinctive Australian composers: Larry Sitsky, Ross Edwards and Matthew Hindson. Though different in style and timbre, they share a common theme - humans drawn to contemplation by nature.

WORKS

Matthew Hindson Insect Songs (1998)
Larry Sitksy A Feast of Lanterns II: Seven songs from Chinese poetry (2015)
Ross Edwards Five Senses: Five poems of Judith Wright (2012)

ARTISTS
Hindson: Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano, Vladimir Gorbach guitar

Sitsky: Luke Spicer conductor, Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano, Vivien Jeffery violin/viola, Geoffrey Gartner cello, Clemens Leske piano, William Jackson percussion

Edwards: Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano, Bernadette Harvey piano, Joshua Hill percussion

This recording project was supported by Creative Partnerships Australia MATCH funding program.

Audio Engineer and Producer: Jayson McBride
Executive Producer: Cameron Lam
Record Label: Kammerklang
Cover Art: Luke Moseley

Released by Kammerklang on 28th May 2019

Available to buy from Bandcamp and to listen on Spotify

Review extracts

“How fortunate for any composer, young or old, to have one of the doyen of Australian art song performers, Jenny Duck-Chong as your musical protagonist.”

Alan Holley, Classikon, February 2020

Holland-Batt’s words are given life by mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong, co-founder of Halcyon. Her beautifully measured delivery and bell-like purity works with the strings so well that at times it seems all might be emanating from the same breath.

Lisa MacKinney, Limelight October 2019

“The soundscape is minimalist. Duck-Chong’s beautifully rounded voice is incisive yet gentle and she sings with impeccable diction. Amply suited to contemporary style, her voice joins the quartet as another instrument, straddling wild leaps in register and unerring in pitch.”

Shamistha de Soysa, Sounds Like Sydney, June 2019

“Lam writes with assured confidence for Duck-Chong’s clear warm mezzo-soprano voice and the result is a perfect partnership of words, melody, emotion and cerebral contemplation.”

Victoria Watson, Sounds Like Sydney, June 2019

Click here to read more

The Art of Disappearing is a song cycle meditating on the nature of grief. Slowly transforming from stasis - where is everything is arresting and alien - grief doesn't leave. It becomes an important and empathetic part of us, as we learn to move again.

The fifth portrait album from Sydney composer, Cameron Lam, weaves together the timbre and expressive depth of mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong and the vibrant connection of the Geist String Quartet to paint a delicate response to the rhythmic and intensely musical poetry of Sarah Holland-Batt's first book, Aria.

TRACK LIST

The Art of Disappearing I 04:56
Tracery 07:19
Synchronised Time (from String Quartet No.2 "Time Echoes Your Sound") 06:14
Meditation on the Plums I 04:00
Scattered Like A Broken Crusader (from String Quartet No.2 "Time Echoes Your Sound") 04:20
Elegie 06:34
Athenian Jar 03:42
Silence Resonating Into Sound (from String Quartet No.2 "Time Echoes Your Sound") 05:50
Enduring Ritual 06:27
Meditation on the Plums II 04:10
That Which Was Always There (from String Quartet No.2 "Time Echoes Your Sound") 05:16
The Art of Disappearing II 05:38

ARTISTS
Composer: Cameron Lam
Poet: Sarah Holland-Batt

Mezzo soprano: Jenny Duck-Chong (Halcyon)
Geist String Quartet:
Violin I - Sonia Wilson
Violin II - Mia Stanton
Viola - Hayasa Tanaka
Violoncello - James Larsen