Peter Zummo / Ernie Brooks / Bill Ruyle / Oliver Coates / Bass Clef

Event information

Peter Zummo / Ernie Brooks / Bill Ruyle / Oliver Coates / Bass Clef
Five artists, divided by an ocean but bound by a shared musical language, meet for the first time to perform open-form compositions and mutant pop gems.

Peter Zummo (trombone, keyboard, voice) leads the New York contingent, which also includes Ernie Brooks (bass and acoustic guitars, voice) and Bill Ruyle (hammer dulcimer, percussion). The three have collaborated closely, with each other and with the late cellist Arthur Russell, since the late 1970s, as well as serving time in such legendary outfits as the Lounge Lizards (Zummo), the Modern Lovers (Brooks) and LaMama (Ruyle).

Team GB is made up of the noted cellist and Southbank Centre artist-in-residence Oliver Coates and Ralph Cumbers, aka Bass Clef, who will provide beats and live processing. Between Cumbers and Zummo, expect two trombones.

This performance will explore minimalism, rock, jazz, punk, world and electronic genres, along with the spoken word, serious and silly. As a composer and instrumentalist, Zummo favours rough edges, managed chaos and sounds that are abrasive yet refined. His composition is of ensemble as much as it is for ensemble. He believes that in this life, there are wolves and there are dogs.


Support from Ela Stiles
Over the years, Ela Stiles has built a name for herself as an adept musician in Sydney's often strange and varied music scene. Moving beyond her work in local favourites Songs, she became a driving force in Melbourne outfit Bushwalking, releasing two records with the band while still based in Sydney and working on numerous projects.

Now, Ela has taken another hairpin turn, revealing a solo record comprised entirely of a-cappella performances. It is her voice alone that fills the listener's ear, and then her voice again, rising and falling in different vocal patterns both rhythmic and melodic, turning in on itself and creating layers of startling sound.