Melbourne-born composer Anthony Pateras presents two substantial chamber works emerging from distinct contexts yet unified by his singular approach to electro-acoustic orchestration. Born to Macedonian immigrants in the late 1970s, Pateras has built a 25-year career spanning collaborations with John Zorn's Tzadik, Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, and commissions from INA-GRM.
Patterned Language (19 minutes) unfolds from a live performance at Melbourne's Church of All Nations in November 2022. Commissioned by the Astra Chamber Music Society, the work features Lizzy Welsh and Erkki Veltheim (violins), Chloë Sobek (double bass), Alexander Garsden (guitar), with Pateras on piano, celeste and sine waves. The piece explores minimal materials through intricate electro-acoustic layering.
A Dread of Voids emerged from pandemic quarantine, developed during a residency at Geneva's Festival Archipel. Recorded in Berlin in August 2021, it features Australian expatriates Jess Aszodi (voice), Jon Heilbron (double bass), Sam Dunscombe (bass clarinet), and Rebecca Lane (bass flute), with Pateras conducting and performing. The work navigates sound phenomena through carefully constrained musical vocabulary – what Pateras describes as exploring "aural hallucination and electro-acoustic orchestration."
Both pieces composed on the unceded lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung and Wurundjeri people, mixed in Castlemaine between February and April 2023.
