MUSIC to accompany animated film immediately creates images of Dukas and Disney or “Merrily We Roll Along” and the Looney Tunes cartoons.   Maybe a booming theatre organ or, in a broader film sense, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in front of the Canberra Theatre screen playing live to “Ginger Meggs”.   This cinematic experience was not like any of the above.

The four piece (flute, violin, cello, keyboard) Swedish premier contemporary music ensemble, The Pearls Before Swine Experience, are visiting Canberra as collaborators with The Griffyn Ensemble to present The Water Into Swine Festival.   This performance was offered in the small and intimate Kendall Lane Theatre.

This was not conventional music in any sense.   Accompaniment to four short animated films was more akin to a complex array of sound effects.   Music sheets were devoid of conventional music notation and, in the first film Burning (an essay concerning the inability to remember detail), there were seemingly no bar lines or time signatures as well as the unusual sight/sound of the keyboard being played using the palm of the hands rather than the fingers.   The subject matter of the films was dark and menacing with strange moving figures (perhaps encased in cling wrap) dominating Watchers and nightmares the inspiration for Odboy and Erordog.   Accompaniment to the other film, Red O, was even more weird/fascinating.   For this, no music sheets at all.   The players watched a screen where a red dot appeared in the centre of a black circle.   Lines then intersected from the black to the red, an indication for players to produce sound in accordance with the length and breadth of a symbol which grew from within the line.   There was no indication of pitch or rhythm but it was possible, and most interesting, to follow the process of the sound making in both an aural and visual sense.

This was not a “concert” for everybody.   It was an abstract display of sound which breached new horizons during interaction with film of similar unconventional nature.   With only a moment of two of melodic fragment it was not laid back and easy listening but it certainly was rather fascinating and a rare journey into the unknown.

I was only able to attend this single performance during the festival so a personal regret was that this outing didn’t allow an opportunity to gain a real insight into the overall performance ability of this most contemporary and certainly progressive chamber music group.