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About the release:

Onliving is the debut EP release from 21-year-old Sydney composer William Gardiner.

A 20-minute piece in four continuous movements for small ensemble and electronics, Onliving invites the listener into an immersive and fascinating sound-world almost as vast and varied as consciousness itself. Violin notes are exquisitely stretched and squeezed by analog delay, piano notes ricochet before tightening into rhythmic allignment, and at times collective improvisation vies with exact notation for control of the musical landscape.

Stylistic influences range from the solemn beauty of the music of Pēteris Vasks, to the minimal techniques of Reich, to the exploratory sounds of new music bands such as Animal Collective and Do Make Say Think.

The piece was recorded by sound designer/producer Bob Scott at Trackdown Scoring Stage, one of the world’s most revered spaces for acoustic recording, and features performances by some of Sydney’s most promising emerging musicians, including Ned Cooke (piano) of the much-acclaimed Sydney band Dappled Cities.

Last week part of Onliving was played on Peter Hollo’s fantastic show on FBi, Utility Fog. Utility Fog has got to be my favourite show on my favourite radio station, so I am stoked that my piece was premiered on the show. Some more will be played on tonight’s Utility Fog, so do tune in from 10pm-1am Sydney time (94.5FM in Sydney or online)! It really is a great show and I have learned a lot from it.

My debut release, Onliving, is coming out tomorrow (Monday 20 July 2009) on CD (digipak, with free digital download included) and digital download formats.

It’s an EP-length release, for a small ensemble with electronics, consisting of a four continuous tracks which really form one big piece. I was really fortunate to work with some wonderful people over the course of putting it together and I’m really excited for people to hear it.

Check back here for all the details.

Here it is, my very own website! I hope you like it.

Much, much thanks to the wonderful Lilian Fan who fashioned it using only her bare hands from very scant raw materials.

The music section of my website is my bandcamp page, a great site which facilitates thorough checking out of my music. Digital downloads are also available for purchase there in a veritable smorgasbord of different formats (gotta love the flacs).