Sonic City: Smoke Between Mountains

Smoke Between Mountains, is a new work by composer and Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) Artistic Director, Aaron Choulai with the Australian Art Orchestra, and premieres in Australia as part of AAO's Sonic City program. Composed for an ensemble of nine musicians, it traces a dreamlike narrative drawing on Shinto and Australian First Nations ecological thought against an innovative score that plays with the Ghibli sound world.

Against a rich visual backdrop of video design by Michael Carmody, the work unfolds through the voice and koto of Miyama McQueen-Tokita and the percussive storytelling of Adam Manning, as Choulai employs his Sono-Kinetic Conducting system to shape improvised moments of story through sound. Blurring the boundaries between composition, improvisation and mythic storytelling, Smoke Between Mountains becomes a meditation on connection, between cultures, landscapes, generations and the fragile ecologies that bind them.

Proudly supported by City of Melbourne.