Biography

Jesse Budel is a South Australian composer and sound artist currently completing a PhD at Elder Conservatorium of Music, where his research is focussed on creative responses to contrasting South Australian places, ecosystems and soundscapes (through the lens of the emerging ecological discipline, soundscape ecology).

In 2017, Jesse is undertaking an extensive professional development tour of the US and Canada in his research area of ecological music and sound art, supported by a Carclew Fellowship, Helpmann Academy Grant and Rural City of Murray Bridge Small Wins Grant. Additionally, he will be collaborating with the Zephyr Quartet to develop an urban sound installation in the Adelaide CBD, as part of a New Music Network LAB Mentorship.

Composer website:  www.jesse-budel.com

Featured Works

Sirenity, for Amplified string quartet.

Sirenity explores the mythology of the siren, hybrid woman with either bird-like or mer-like physical qualities, whose beautiful voices lured the all-too-easily corruptible minds of sailors to their peril. Channelling spectralist, minimalist and ecoacoustic approaches, the work retains this dyadic relationship of characters: the sirens through humpback whale song and the sailor/victim in the airborne caws and calls of the wandering albatross (both sourced from recordings), with the former drawing the latter to its impending doom; the aftermath decaying back to the torrents of the sea.

Featured in Space Waves – June 2017, curated by Marlene Radice.