Australian violinist and improvising artist Erkki Veltheim has performed with the Australian Art Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Elision and Ensemble Modern, and has also featured as a soloist with London Sinfonietta and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He has performed with and composed arrangements for artists such as Black Arm Band, Gurrumul, Shane Howard and Zulya, and has worked with the likes of Anthony Pateras, John Rodgers, Jon Rose, Scott Tinkler and Tony Buck amongst numerous others.
His latest release Ganzfeld Experiments (Room40) is due for release on the 16th of August. As the title suggests its based around the infamous ESP experiments.
Room40 describes the experiments as:
“In a Ganzfeld experiment, a test subject is exposed to such a continuous uniform stimulus field, while another person attempts to send them telepathic messages. Using this premise as a starting point, this edition replicates elements of this experiment in order to explore synaesthetic hallucinations. The electric violin’s signal acts as a tool for gradually manipulating and transforming static noise in both the audio and visual domains.”
They’re calling Erkki’s solo album for phasing white noise and violin part of the ‘new Australian minimalism’.
This is what Erkki has to say about it:
“I’m always interested in how structure interacts with randomness, form with formlessness, and ways in which sound can be used to transform a listener’s perception and sense of time and place. I’m also often looking for ways to expand my musical ideas to other media, through ritual, installation, or visual elements. An important motive in my work is the idea that through sound (and these other elements) we can enter different realms of experience: the mystical, the magical, the shamanistic. In ‘Ganzfeld experiment’, as in many other of my works, I’m particularly searching for an ecstatic experience, one that transports the audience outside of their rational, everyday selves.”
You can find it here.
