Music / “Songs from a Stolen Senate”, Griffyn Ensemble. At Belco Arts, March 13. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

THE story so far… This concert was originally planned to open the new performance space at the revamped Belco Arts (previously known as the Belconnen Arts centre) in May last year. The idea for program was to commission a number of First Nations composers to set words, compiled by poet Melinda Smith from various Parliamentary speeches, for performance by the Griffyns.

The plague put a stop to that and in September a live version was streamed with pre-recorded videos of five of the commissioned works interspersed with interviews and commentary from the composers and performers.

Finally, it has been possible to perform all eight of the commissioned works live in the new “black box” performance space at Belconnen with all the bells and whistles of a new theatrical space – fog machines, lighting and video projection as well as a good sound system. It is a long way from the old performing space at Belconnen where everything electronic had to be brought in with the added distraction of joggers passing the windows at the back.

The eight works are all quite different, though there is a sadness and sometimes some anger percolating through most of them.

Most are songs, as soprano Susan Ellis is a core member of the Griffyns, and a central part of their sound. Some are quite structured songs, such as the songs from Gina Williams, Nora Bangiri and Christopher Sainsbury. Others sound more improvisatory, such as those by local visual artist Richie Allan and hip-hop performer Jimblah, though there was still attention being paid to scores during both of these pieces. Some were more immediately attractive than others, but each held its own fascination.

The Griffyn Ensemble has evolved tremendously since their first performances well over a decade ago. Their current line-up of soprano Susan Ellis, flautist Kiri Sollis, violinist Chris Stone, bassist Holly Downes and composer/director/mandolinist Michael Sollis is a fine blend of confidant musicianship. Downes’ bass especially provides a rhythmic and harmonic foundation to the music that the others can work from.

The new theatre space at Belconnen works well for this style of performance. It is a large room around 20 metres square with a high ceiling. It is quite dead acoustically, with the audience applause was noticeably dulled. At the same time, while the performance was amplified, there was no sense of the sound coming from a sound system. It all sounded delightfully natural.

This work is quite magnificent in its concept. A musical group in Canberra collaborating with indigenous composers from all over the country, from Perth to Hermannsberg to the Torres Strait, working with a poet who has trawled through Hansard to find political statements to inspire the compositions. We can only wait expectantly to see what Michael and the ensemble come up with next

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