At just 21, Sydney-based composer William Gardiner possesses a talent way beyond his years. His first original composition, Onliving, is a single piece, broken up into four movements, for small ensemble and electronics. And it’s absolutely stunning.
Onliving opens with ‘Reverie’, which is based around a, by turns, playful and menacing string section. Also lurking in the background are piano, clarinet and flute; all of which come into play more and more as the piece progresses. Second movement ‘The Loving Bells’ is a brief piano vignette, lovingly performed by Dappled Cities’ Ned Cooke, which segues directly into ‘Running’. With its lush strings, insistent piano and punctuated bursts of clarinet and flute, the track brings to mind the work of Louisville post-classicists Rachel’s. On final track ‘Return’, a strident string figure is gently but sternly nudged from view by Gardiner’s electronic oscillations, leaving Onliving to dissolve with a quietly inhuman pulse. Though short, there’s a remarkable breadth to this EP; a bright beacon of things to come.
Indeed, on the strength of this release, Gardiner should join the esteemed ranks of composers such as Max Richter, Peter Broderick and Sylvain Chauveau, who have recontextualised classical idioms within avant-garde frameworks without abandoning basic notions of melody and accessibility.
by Adam D Mills
