Elemental
The Igniter season of Elemental ended in Wellington July 26.
Exploring elements of our heritage, our rhythms, our environment, and our elements STRIKE harness the sonic power of water, fire, earth and the airwaves around us. They lead you on a breathtaking journey of sound manipulation, choreography, rhythmic intricacy and invention.
Using hydrophones, pyrophones, dippophones, Bedford trucks, and even percussion instruments, Strike’s follow-up to their stageshow In The Cube is an exhilarating and exciting experience.
Elemental premièred before a full house in Taupo, May 11, and received a standing ovation.
You can book this show now for late 2008
This show is designed for a 300 – 500 seat theatre with 4 performers. The show is available both nationally and internationally.
Fusion of the elements strikes a glorious chord
"… very much a show, rather than a concert. Filled with movement, shadow, space, light, darkness, mime and — most gloriously — drums, STRIKE's Elemental is the best show I have seen from the talented quartet."
Simon Sweetman, Dominion Post, 2008
Programme
Territory (Murray Hickman and Tim Whitta, 2003) Driving rhythms and flaming mallets: Welcome to Elemental!
Streams (Tim Whitta, 2008) Heavily influenced by the time I spent by the creek at my old school. Sounds of nature — birdcalls, and rippling rapids — alongside the prominent noise of people and machinery
Striking a blow for nonverbal theatre
"Murray Hickman, Tom Pierard, Leni Sulusi and Tim Whitta are earthed in their consummate and composite musicianship as they extract extraordinary sounds and rhythms from instruments wrought from minerals: metals, glass, ceramics and plastics. And skins, of course." John Smythe's full review
Pukul (Gareth Farr, 2003) “Commissioned by STRIKE and first performed in their show Farr Blitz, Pukul — ‘strike’ in Indonesian — was the first time I was able to write in this style since discovering Balinese gamelan music in the late 80s. The STRIKE performers are such phenomenal percussionists, they bring these rhythmic ideas to life like I've never heard before! The piece alternates sections of the bombastic ‘kebyar’ style playing with sections of intense driving rhythms, influenced by other musical styles — from rock music, to Rarotongan drumming, to John Cage.” Gareth Farr.
Tubes (Gareth Farr, 2008) “Created for the fewest instruments — and even then they're not real instruments — ‘Tubes’ uses four pieces of aluminium pipe, and draws on Balinese interlocking techniques. I particularly love the idea of creating interesting sounds with junk — the concept that you can create beautiful music with stuff that isn't worth anything, financially speaking. Despite the simplicity of the concept, the piece is incredibly difficult to play — all four players have to play as if they were one person.” Gareth Farr Commissioned by Strike with funding from Creative New Zealand.
Earthworks (Tim Whitta, 2008) Earthworks is centred on the choreographic elements in the Japanese percussion style Taiko. A call and response theme blends the visual and sound elements, with low drums representing the earth’s seismic activity.
Relentless (Murray Hickman, 2008) Using only metal timbres, this piece charts a volcanic episode — from dormancy to eruption.
Said of STRIKE
"Dazzlingly Creative" Taiwan
"A night of powerful and imaginative performance" International Percussion News
Water Sketches (Murray Hickman, 2008) From precipitation to a hydroelectric dam — a raindrops travels.
Igniter (Strike, 2008) Using our newly commissioned fire guns, STRIKE harness fire to create mesmerising choreography and rhythmic intricacy.
Blast (Takumi Motokawa, 2008) Fire — a central element in festivals all over the world — was the inspiration for this piece. “When I see or experience fire, I want to make a loud noise!” Tak
Drumflip (Leni Sulusi, 2008) Based on hip-hop, laced with flashy drum stick tricks and back flips.
Ukare Funk (Gareth Farr, 2008) Exploring different ways of finding syncopation within a triple (compound) beat, and complicated cross rhythms playing against more steady groove rhythms is a major feature of the piece's rhythmic textures. Ukare is, as a musical term, Japanese for a swung or compound beat. In everyday usage it also means ‘letting go’ or ‘throwing caution to the wind and enjoying yourself’, which I think sums up the mood of the piece perfectly. And funk? — well, that speaks for itself!
"The show is a non-stop ride for one and a half hours, and the group pace the dynamics very well. They will lull you into a sense of calm, with minimalist sound and delicate playing, the wake you up as the stage bursts into a cacophony of sound."
Kerry Adams, The Big Idea
Hydrophonic (Murray Hickman and Strike, 2008) Take a dippophone, gongophone, Van-Tam-Tamaphone and a ticky tacky machine, add a wide selection of weird and wonderful instruments, the pitch bending properties of water, some inventive drummers and you get a sonic experience you could only describe as ‘Hydrophonic’.
Lava Takumi Motokawa, 2008) Natural disasters are unpredictable, especially volcanic activities and earthquakes. When faced with an eruption, humans are defenceless — the force is too big. But we still live with it. Life goes on.
Sponsorship
Elemental is being sponsored by Igniter, Creative New Zealand, Spectrum Print, Kia Kaha, and the Wellington City Council.
Contact manager@strike.co.nz to discuss sponsoring STRIKE.
You can book this show now for late 2008
This show is designed for a 300 – 500 seat theatre with 4 performers. The show is available both nationally and internationally.