Kirby/Ward
The Unforgetting of Mary K - Live performance extract
Percy Grainger Museum, Melbourne
Melbourne Music Week, Nov. 2018
This project was an interesting one, working wiht a range of musicians and produced by Kieran Ruffles. The premise was the rediscovery of the works of Mary Kiernan, a well known australian pianist from the mid-twentieth century. Many of her early works had never been recorded, and probably heard by few. This project required interpreting and recording clean copies of a number of scores, then reinterpreting them for distribution between a range of musicians. Mat and I also deveoped our own take on the works, largely focused on pulling out interesting or playful motifs and re-scoring them for piano, bass, and vocals.
Kirby/Ward is the collaboration of Dani Kirby and Mat Ward. Dani Kirby (piano/keyboards/voice) and Mat Ward (bass) perform improvised multi-genre soundscapes that incorporate elements of post-classicism, noise-art, minimalism and polyrhythmic experimentation. Their practice includes site-specific response, expanded cinema, field recording manipulation and collaboration with percussion and custom-designed instrument ensembles. Kirby/Ward have been performing regularly across Australia at festivals, museums and events since 2016.
Check out more of Mat’s work at www.matward.net/