BIOGRAPHY

Australian trumpeter/composer/sound artist, Peter Knight, is a multidisciplinary musician who has gained wide acclaim for his distinctive approach, which integrates jazz, experimental, and world music traditions. Peter’s work as both performer and composer is regularly featured in a range of ensemble settings, he also composes for theatre, creates sound installations, and is the Artistic Director of one of Australia’s leading contemporary music ensembles, the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO).

Perpetually curious, Peter’s practice defies categorisation; indeed he works in the spaces between categories, between genres, and between cultures: “Hard to categorise… hauntingly memorable” The Wire (UK). “Falling into an utterly genre-less wormhole” Cyclic Defrost. “Honest, inventive and original” Hour Magazine Montreal. “A serious work of stringent originality” BBC Jazz on 3. “If trumpet is an element then Knight is an alchemist” New York City Jazz Record.

Composer website:  www.peterknightmusic.com

FEATURED WORKS

Diomira, for Voice, 2 Bb trumpet, laptop electronics, bass clarinet, bass trombone, modular synthesiser, keyboard, piano, electric violin, cello, vibraphone, electric guitar, double bass, B77 reel-to-reel tape machine and turntables.

Drawing inspiration from Diomira, one of the imaginary cities described in Italo Calvino’s novella, Invisible Cities, Peter Knight’s work sets up a post-minimal logic that refracts and disintegrates as we listen. The instrumentation of the chamber jazz orchestra is expanded with the unexpected additions of turntables, a reel-to-reel tape machine (which replaces the drum kit) and live laptop signal processing. The sounds of acoustic instruments and voices are interwoven with field recordings cut onto vinyl, and are filtered and augmented as Knight plays with our perceptions of what we hear and what we imagine we have heard. Time folds into itself in a very Calvino-esque manner, leaving us with the trace residue of moments half remembered.

Featured in Minimalist Waves October 2016