Love Resonance (April 2021) is a slow-moving audio-visual work developed across distance during lockdown by trombonist/improviser Simone de Haan in Fremantle and composer/percussionist Graeme Leak in Scotland. Created for Astra Concerts’ Quarter-Hour concert series, the piece began as a dialogue of contrasting currents and locations and became a single composition of interaction: solo trombone sounding into the western skies, encountering a returning web of multi-layered, polyrhythmic organ sounds.
Grounded in deep listening and daily reflection at dawn and dusk by the Indian Ocean, Simone de Haan’s playing and images are shaped by the natural environment in which they originate. At the same time, Love Resonance carries strongly personal elegiac qualities of loss and remembrance, honouring the life and essential spirit of Simone’s son, Mischa. What began as a conversation about performance audio techniques grew into a meditation on authenticity, collaboration, and a life in music.
some words from the creators…
Simone: Exploring resonance in both sonorous and relational terms has been at the core of our collaboration. My creative offering is grounded in the process of reflection I undertake each day at dawn and dusk by the Indian Ocean. Deep listening and image taking are fundamental to this practice and connect me aurally, visually, and viscerally, with the changing nature of the environment. Love Resonance honours the life and essential spirit of my son Mischa.
Graeme: What began as a conversation with Simone about performance audio techniques soon grew into a dialogue around authenticity and the nature of a life in music. We started sharing files and soon after I recorded a live one-take organ track to which Simone similarly responded. On seeing the beauty and power of Simone’s daily image posts I then proposed an audio-visual work. After five months of collaboration and postproduction, Love Resonance is born.