The Squid's Ear Magazine

Denley, Jim

Through Fire, Crevice and The Hidden Valley

Denley, Jim: Through Fire, Crevice and The Hidden Valley (Splitrec)

Recorded live in an Australian National Park on a 15-day walk, saxophonist Jim Denley performs solo on the alto saxophone in response to and in conversation with the environment around him using the natural acoustics of this rugged and awe-inspiring region.
 

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Jim Denley-alto saxophone


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Label: Splitrec
Catalog ID: 16
Squidco Product Code: 20293

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2007
Country: Australia
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded in the Budawang mountains south west of Sydney, Australia by Jim Denley.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Recorded live in an Australian National Park on a 15-day walk, this is some righteously original music-making. Denley has the ability to make his alto sax closely mimic natural sounds such as insects and trees and thus tightens their connections to humans. This in turn is marvelously tied in with the nature recordings employed throughout. Most of the time you can't tell what's part of the bush and what's Denley. What a tonic! Everything is brought into a complimentary, intertwined whole. This fulfills the Taoist ideal of merging the human and natural world. It'll be wholly unlike anything you've ever heard before. "Not man apart" indeed."-splitrec



"From the 18th of May 2006, I spent 15 days armed with sax, camera, audio recorders, food and a solar recharger in the Budawang Mountains, a wilderness area in the Morton National Park, South West of Nowra on the east coast of Australia. These mountains are full of dramatic and rugged rock formations, caves, crevices and a hidden valley - it's a wonderland of natural acoustics. Presumably people have been making music in these spaces for thousands of years, but it's almost certain sax hasn't been heard there before."-Jim Denley



"...this is some righteously original music-making. Denley has the ability to make his alto sax closely mimic natural sounds such as insects and trees and thus tightens their connections to humans. This in turn is marvelously tied in with the nature recordings employed throughout. Most of the time you can't tell what's part of the bush and what's Denley. What a tonic! Everything is brought into a complimentary, intertwined whole. This fulfills the Taoist ideal of merging the human and natural world. It'll be wholly unlike anything you've ever heard before. "Not man apart" indeed."Richard Grooms - The Improvisor

"The quavering long tones and sustained flutters he favors on several tracks are brimming with subtle shifting timbres, which create moments of sublime counterpoint with the environmental sounds, particularly the waterfalls. Occasionally, he mulls over clipped phrases at length; but, then, so do the birds. This is truly music beyond category."-Bill Shoemaker Point of Departure

"This is music at it's most primal, enhancing the beauty of creation."John Shand - Sydney Morning Herald.

"Wonderful music that defies category" - Tom Sekowski - Gaz-ata


Artist Biographies

"Jim Denley was born in Bulli, Australia in January 1957. Wind instruments and electronics are core elements of his musical output.

An emphasis on spontaneity, site-specific work and collaboration has been central to his work. He sees no clear distinctions between his roles as instrumentalist, improviser and composer.

Collaborations, his radio feature for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, won the Prix Italia in 1989. His interest in radio has continued with the ABC over 17 years. In May 2006 he recorded a program for the ABC in the Budawang Mountains, south-west of Sydney, which has now been made into a CD, Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley. This received an Honorary Mention in the Digital Musics category of the Prix Ars Electronica 2008. He has been to the Budawangs again to record a new program for the ABC, Co-existence. The ABC will enter the 2006 recordings in Prix Italia 2009.

In 1990 he was a member of Derek Bailey's Company for a week of concerts in London. He co-founded the electroacoustic text/music group Machine for Making Sense.

In 2006 and 2007 he received a Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts to research and develop his concept of Meta instrument. As part of this he formed the group Metalog - they toured Australia July 2008.

He has played throughout Australia, Europe, Japan and the US with artists such as Chris Abrahams, Clare Cooper, Keith Rowe, Joel Stern, Robbie Avenaim, Jon Rose, John Butcher, Otomo Yoshide, Fred Frith, Phil Niblock, Trey Spruance, Clayton Thomas, Tess de Quincy, Axel Doerner, Adam Sussman, Ami Yoshida, Oren Ambarchi, Tony Buck, Ikue Mori, Satchiko M, Malcolm Goldstein and Annette Krebs."

-Australian Music Centre (http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/denley-jim)
3/31/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Hidden Valley 5:16

2. Through Fire 6:54

3. Masahide's Cave 8:50

4. Water Falls 4:25

5. From MT. Haughton 4:33

6. Singing Donjon 4:25

7. Dark Brothers 8:58

8. Monolith 9:42

9. Crevice 6:02

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Solo Artist Recordings
Australian Improvisers, Composers and Experimenters

Search for other titles on the label:
Splitrec.


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