'Liminal' composed for Lauren Langlois [2019]
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This work was composed in collaboration with choreographer Lauren Langlois for WAAPA’s ‘Rise’ dance season. The choreography explores symbiosis and transformation inspired by fractal patterns in nature, and the music reflects with soundscapes of multiple distinct layers built from the same sound sources. The music consists of edited field recordings and synthesised pads and drums. As in the choreography, the music explores 'the space between' through gradual transition and juxtaposition of contrasting states of the same material. The work was created with the 3rd year contemporary dance students at WAAPA, and premiered in May 2019.
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'enutriet' for four grand pianos [2018]
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Everything resonates. From subatomic particles, to stars and galaxies. If space was filled with air, similar to our atmosphere, the sun could be as loud as a train horn from one meter away. Most resonances are out of the range of human hearing: the lowest sound is the resonance of a black hole in the Perseus cluster, approximately fifty-seven octaves below middle C, and sounds above the range of hearing are used for medical imaging. Musical instruments are designed to select and amplify resonance, but they can never be entirely pure; there will always be resonances occurring outside the selected note. In the piano, when a note is struck, the other strings will respond by vibrating according to its harmonic partials. In this piece, these partials are amplified, to explore the sounds of the piano not normally audible in performance.
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'that which once harboured' for 7.1 array [2018]
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This piece uses recordings captured at Shell Beach in the Shark Bay world heritage area on the central west coast of WA. The beach skirts a shallow bay with a very high salt content, which renders it unliveable for most marine life. Billions of tiny cockles are one of the few species that have adapted to the hypersaline conditions, and the beach is covered with their shells instead of sand. Despite the unique biosystem and beauty of this natural wonder, just a few hundred metres from the tourist area, the beach is bulldozed and the shells sold for industrial and agricultural uses. This version has been mixed for stereo, from the original 7.1.
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'it carried with it salt lakes and crimson sands' [2018] composed for Ezgi Gungor
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This piece was composed for a choreography by Ezgi Gungor, which was created and premiered as part of the 2018 Venice Bienalle Danza. Both the music and the choreography explore the effects of extreme wind and weather, and this is reflected in the score through field recordings, thunder-like subs and samples, and cracking, tearing, and rending.
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'The Wedding' [2018] composed for Tobiah Booth-Remmers
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This music was composed for a choreography by Tobiah Booth-Remmers, created for and performed by LiNK Dance Company. The piece explores human interaction, and the ways in which our behaviour is shaped by the contexts we exist in, and what would be left if those contexts and structures were removed. The work was premiered at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in May, 2018, as part of the 'Differently Equal' dance season, and was then toured to Montpellier festival of dance in July.
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Tintinyungu [2017]
'Tintinyungu' is a word from the language of the Walmajarri people, who have lived in the Kimberly region of Western Australia for thousands of years. The word means 'to challenge or compete with', and this piece reflects that by pitting the guitarists against one another through the use of differing time signatures and rhythmic groupings across the parts. This piece was composed for the Silver Sands Guitar Trio (Jonathan Paget, Craig Lake, and Nathan Fischer), who premiered the piece at the Perth Town Hall on July 1st, 2017. The video of this concert is featured below.
'Yashica Electro 35' short film [2017]
In July 2017 I composed music for two short films as part of the Revel8 Super-8 film competition, which is organised as part of the Revelation International Film Festival in Perth. In this competition, directors are required to create a short using super 8 cameras, and must shoot directly to film, and submit without editing. The films are then assigned to composers, who create a score without ever making contact with the director, relying on their own interpretation of the film. The two films I composed for, 'The Consultation', directed by James George, and 'Yashica Electro 35', were both exciting projects, and it was interesting to see the different ways that the directors used the limitations to their benefit when creating the films. 'The Consultation' won the Director's Choice award for the competition.
'Matter' dance film [2016]
This piece was composed for a dance film I worked on, which featured choreography by Michelle Aitken, and was directed by Jacob Brinkworth. The music uses mixing techniques to blend instrumental sounds with field recordings to compliment the natural setting of the film, and explores the concept of perspective and scale, in tandem with the visual elements of the film.
Matter from Michelle Aitken on Vimeo.
Reviews
Azariah Felton’s 'Tintinyungu' was given its world premiere performance. Its gently flowing, charm-laden measures give way to more assertive moments. I’d like to listen to it again. The composer points out that the title means ‘‘to challenge or compete with” and the piece shows this by pitting the players against one another “through different time signatures and rhythmic groupings”. It’s fascinating fare. - Neville Cohn, New Oz Arts Review
'This Is Our First Rodeo’ is exciting and remarkable, choreographed by Michelle Aitken, with music by Azariah Felton, and design by Eilish Campbell. With the dancers in black cowboy outfits, edged in red, we are welcomed into the rodeo – or could it be a Highland Gathering? The fiddle music was catchy, and one of the dances reminiscent of a Scottish ‘Strip the Willow’. Who are the stars of the rodeo, the cowboys or the beasts? – This routine made one think.' - Gordon the Optom, The Independent Theatre Assosciation
'In Azariah Felton’s 'Harm Them', the music oscillates between ferocity and a sense of eerie, threatening unease. Frequently, it sounds creepy, phantasmagoric, ominous.' - Neville Cohn, The West Australian
'This Is Our First Rodeo’ is exciting and remarkable, choreographed by Michelle Aitken, with music by Azariah Felton, and design by Eilish Campbell. With the dancers in black cowboy outfits, edged in red, we are welcomed into the rodeo – or could it be a Highland Gathering? The fiddle music was catchy, and one of the dances reminiscent of a Scottish ‘Strip the Willow’. Who are the stars of the rodeo, the cowboys or the beasts? – This routine made one think.' - Gordon the Optom, The Independent Theatre Assosciation
'In Azariah Felton’s 'Harm Them', the music oscillates between ferocity and a sense of eerie, threatening unease. Frequently, it sounds creepy, phantasmagoric, ominous.' - Neville Cohn, The West Australian
