realising i have much more to tell, i have split this post in 2.
managing to get back to castlemaine in the early hours of the morning on saturday 26th may allowed me to do some much needed laundry in the morning,and then go and set up the installation ready to run from 2pm. although the show ran for 4 hours, i only received a couple of visitors that day, but the ones who made it stayed and enjoyed it. eamon also came on the saturday to have a listen and try out some ideas for the performance on the sunday. on the way back to the house i was staying in we stopped in to selvi's curries to get a take away, tried some of the food before buying, and then were invited to eat in the restaurant, which was a huge room with an open fire that was very welcome... for anyone visiting castlemaine, try it out!
the next morning we all met up at the icu at 11am to set up the sound system and sound check for the performance, which was scheduled for 5pm, then packed way as much as we could to run the installation from 2-4pm. this time i had quite a few visitors, and most then stayed for the performances. i started off, with a precomposed piece using various tones and drones captured in the space,and then used various objects, moving around and within the audience. i was then joined by lizzie pogson, who performed with a combination of sounds from the local area and japan. a very pleasant, nicely paced set. next up was tarab, creating vibrations through a plate attached to a wire mesh that makes up one side of the space,and then taking a signal from the mesh using contact mics and playing that back into the room. again nicely paced and a good use of space. tarab was then joined by jacques soddell for the short overlap crossover characteristic of 'active crossover' performances, which worked really well, with jacques playing what was arguably the most musical set of the evening and closing the event perfectly. thanks once again to eamon, lizzie and jacques, as well as the guys of punctum for their support and hosting the event.
over the next few days i was kindly hosted by eamon, emily and helki in melbourne, which gave me a chance to catch up with friends teresa lane, simon hampson and sophie trebilcock, as well as get some tattoo work done by kat scarlet (http://katscarlettattoo.blogspot.com/), reworking one old and one new piece, and then creating a new one for me in return for a food hamper when i'm back in the uk!! i also managed to finally get my second japanese encephalitis vaccine injection and my visa to visit china in july. itall cametogether nicely at the end of my trip, and it was great to see everyone and spend time.
then on the 2nd june i flew to bangkok airport, where i waited for around 11 hours for my friend emma to arrive, then we had to wait a further 6 hours to fly to phnom pen, cambodia. once there we were taken to a nice hotel on the riverside. we spent 2 nights in phnom penh, visiting the killing fields on the first day and arranging our visas to visit vietnam, and explored a little of the city. as many people will be expecting, here comes the food bit - fish amok is awesome in cambodia, as is lok lak. and as with most places, the best food is in the cafes and restaurants that the locals eat in!
from phnom penh we got a bus to siem reap, where we are now. on the first day we visited the main temples, took it easy yesterday,and then did a couple of the remaining ones today. i also recorded the dawn chorus at angkor wat today which was great - i even managed to escape the surprisingly big crowd of people, all of whom had gone to see the sunrise, which because of cloud was not so impressive... then we traveled further out to banteay srey, visiting ta prohm afterwards - this was the best for me, with the trees and the temple becoming as one in places. many tourist groups and a huge restoration centre made it difficult to get around but we managed.
so now we wait until 12am when we get a bus overnight to ho chi min city in vietnam. more later!
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