NOISE PERFORMANCE (Copy)

NOISE AND IMPROVISATION

Cat performs as a solo noise bassist, but also in groups such as Super Luminum (with electric guitar), The Australian Bass Orchestra, HzHzHz, Candied Limbs and the now defunct Abe Sada (4 bass guitars) and Lux Mammoth (2 bass guitars).

“Cat Hope was like nothing I've ever heard or seen. Walls of feedback and raw noise. This had to be the most 'extreme' act of the night, sheer abrasiveness and sensory overload”

Radio Static, Rochester, USA

NOISE PERFORMANCE LIST

CAT HOPE BASS SOLO

Cat performs solo bass noise shows, but also composes on commission for contemporary dance, theatre, art installation and film. She has toured extensively and was included on the Susan Lawly ‘Extreme Music From Women’ compilation early in 2000, which led to tours in the USA, Europe, Japan and Australia. Cat has also performed as a noise artist with Ikue Mori, Stelarc, KK Null, Merzbow, Jon Rose and Tony Buck, and contributed to albums by artists such as Lawrence English, Zipperspy and others. She is featured on the Australia Ad Lib site, and recordings of her works have been released internationally.

A range of Hope's live solo bass performances can be found here.

SUPER LUMINUM

Super Luminum are Cat Hope (bass guitar) and Lisa MacKinney (guitar); an improvised duo whose influences are wider ranging, informed by MacKinney’s work with Rhys Chatham (most recently as section leader for his 2018 Sydney Festival performances) and Hope’s rich collaborations with Eliane Radigue. These two very different composers share a musical aesthetic characterised by an unhurried approach to the gradual unfolding of ideas and the constructive employment of stasis as a compositional philosophy. In Super Luminum, MacKinney and Hope apply this approach to improvisation, creating loud, euphoric, swirling textures that often feature exploratory playing techniques and incorporate feedback, noise and experimental tonalities. In a live context, this produces an immersive musical experience that is hypnotic and thrilling. Listen to them here.

Australian Bass Orchestra

The Australian Bass Orchestra is a project the follows this manifesto:

The Australian Bass Orchestra is a group of bass range instrumentalists from any instrumental group or family, with a minimum of 15 players. No pitch above Middle C (262 Hz) may be played in an Australian Bass Orchestra performance. Instruments can be established, invented, electronic or acoustic. (Cat Hope, 2014).

The Australian Bass Orchstra has performed at the Now Now Festival (2014), The Perth Insitute of Contemporary Arts (2014) and as part of Hope’s opera, Speechless (2019).

The group developed out of the Abe Sada project 2007-2014) whose main aim is to manipulate the lower end of the sound spectrum through live shows that combine installation with performance. In groups of 3 to 30 bass players from all different genres of music, Abe Sada played under or around stages, car parks, in multi-story buildings, on soccer fields or in shop fronts to vibrate audiences with the extreme bass they produce. The Abe Sada project had a constantly evolving line up of bass players and scenarios, each epitomised in a text score in the Abe Sada Songbook, which you can download below.

ABE SADA SONG BOOK

HzHzHz

HzHzHz is Cat Hope (bass guitar and analogue electronics) and Tristen Parr (cello and digital electronics). This improvisation duo brings together the range of very different practices covered by these two artists – noise, experimental classical and pop – creating a dense exploration of the possibilities for low frequency sound colour. The collaboration developed from within new music ensemble Decibel, where they performed as a duo in the groups interpretation of John Cage's "Variations VI".

Their self-titled debut album was released in December 2013 on Italian lable Brusio Netlabel. Artwork by Mathew Hunt. Mixed and mastered by Stuart James at Soundfield Studio.

"This is one of the more cohesive and enjoyable “pure noise” records I’ve heard in a long time – and a definitive refutation to anyone who says noise can’t be nuanced, heavy, beautiful, nasty, enjoyable and musical all at once" COOL PERTH NIGHTS

Candied Limbs

Candied Limbs is a duo of Cat Hope (bass, analogue effects) and Lindsay Vickery (bass clarinet, digital effects) formed in 2005.

Candied Limbs make free improvised noise like you will have never heard before. Bass drones intermingle with warm bass clarinet tones that are in turn mutilated by maxMSP processing. Harsh high pitch screams mix with warm subtle bass tones filled in-between with mangled, spliced, extended, percussive and chordal environments.