Linsey Pollak and Graeme Leak
Produced by Performing Lines www.performinglines.org.au
The Lab is an inventive and theatrical music performance by Graeme Leak and Linsey Pollak. Set in a laboratory, two scientists share their exciting and hugely entertaining musical discoveries.
Associate Professors of Fun, Leak and Pollak, take the audience on an aural adventure, an adventure obsessed with sounds that emanate from objects in their laboratory. Water, fire, test tubes, pipettes, beakers, flasks, pipes and tubes,...these all sing, ring, ping and swing.
A giant bowl of water provides the centre to their aural universe around which they orbit while constantly surprising the audience with the sounds they extract as they create entrancing music.
The two scientists construct their instruments before us - blowing air under bowls to tune them, filling test tubes to tune glass panpipes and using water, fire and glass to create a symphony of sound. Rather than losing its mystery, seeing the process of making, tuning and tweaking these ad hoc, found instruments enhances the magic.
It is an aural world of depth, energy and beauty. Although the materials are disconcertingly simple, the music itself is complex, rich and emotive.
"…the masterful piece by Leak and Pollak called The Lab. Posing as scientists they constructed the instruments before us-blowing air under the wooden bowls to tune them, and accurately filling test-tubes to create a well tuned glass panpipe. Rather than losing its mystery, seeing the process of tuning and tweaking these ad hoc instruments enhanced the
magic and appreciation of the Leak and Pollak artistry." Real Time
"...it was so great and original and musical and funky and funny and soulful that I was really blown away .........a spectacular act" Sally Ford
For over 20 years Linsey has made an international reputation as a performer, musician-in-residence, musical director, instrument maker/inventor and composer. A life-altering experience was an eight-month stay in Macedonia, where he studied the Gaida (Macedonian bagpipes).
When he returned to Australia he founded the Multicultural Music Centre of West Australia and later created many multi-cultural music ensembles including the National Cross Cultural Ensemble Slivanje. Linsey has performed all around Australia and internationally and has recorded 25 albums.
He is also known for his solo music theatre shows such as The Art of Food, Knocking on Kevin’s Door and Playpen which have toured to Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, North America, Brazil and many European Festivals. He has also worked as a musical instrument maker for 30 years and has designed a number of new wind instruments and specialises in crafting woodwind instruments of Eastern Europe.
Linsey has a reputation for making and playing instruments made from rubber gloves, carrots, watering cans, chairs, brooms, bins, and other found objects. First developed in his solo show Bang it with a Fork and further in the acclaimed children’s show Out of the Frying Pan, this line of musical inventiveness has ultimately led him to also encompass modern digital technology and develop his solo shows Knocking on Kevin’s Door, Playpen, The Art of Food and Making Jam. As a Composer and Performer he toured Out of the Frying Pan from Queensland (Out of the Box Festival, 1994) to Sydney Festival (1996) and then to the Sydney Opera House (1997). Bim...BamBoo!! a large scale outdoor environmental performance Linsey composed, premiered at the Woodford Festival in 1997 and was then featured at the Brisbane Festival in 1998.
Linsey’s ongoing obsession is to make music more accessible to the wider community through musical instrument making, performing and playing workshops.
"Linsey Pollak is one of Australia's most brilliant and under-rated composer/musicians. He is wildly innovative in the use of instruments but never lets his experimentation get in the way of the musicality of a work." - The Courier Mail, Brisbane
“He (Linsey) is famous Australia wide and has the fantastic ability to capture peoples imaginations.” - Music Live
Graeme Leak is an acclaimed Australian performer and composer with a distinguished background in percussion and drumming. He studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Alard Maling and Jack Purdon. In 1985 he lived in New York, taking lessons with local professional percussionists.
Graeme’s diverse activities include a decade with the legendary Flederman Ensemble (which championed new Australian music throughout the 80’s), regular appearances in Melbourne’s ASTRA concerts, spots at The Last Laugh (comedy-cabaret venue), solo recitals across Australia, the US and Europe, plus many innovative projects in music-theatre, dance and improvised music.
He has performed The Art of Noises across Australia andat the Edinburgh and Hong Kong festivals. In November 2001 he led over 500 bell ringers in a massed performance at the Myer Music Bowl for the closing concert of the Melbourne Festival.
Graeme has held teaching positions at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, the Canberra School of Music and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and was Head of Music at La Trobe University.
"Leak is a virtuoso. His work is very performative…forever surprisingly innovative." -
"Leak is a fine, laconic comedian, and his music theatre creations are founded on the music in his environment." -
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Click here to download high res version of this photo by Dave Murphy
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Click here to download high res version of this photo by Paul Bardini
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for bookings or further info contact: linsey@spiderweb.com.au
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Click here to download high res version of this photo by Paul Bardini