Hilary Jeffery is a prolific avant-garde musician who has developed a rich body of work over the last two decades. He was born in 1971 in the UK and has been based in Amsterdam since 2000. As a musician he has been active since 1988, recording and playing live with musicians and groups including Zeitkratzer, Catherine Christer Hennix, Lysn, Jimi Tenor, Kreepa, Black Galaxy, The Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble.
His activity as a composer begins around 2005. It has resulted in various pieces for which he has made scores that sidestep the limitations of traditional forms of Western music notation. The curatorial reasons for inviting Hilary Jeffery were threefold. First of all the observation that this musician/composer is investigating the limits of music, in a way that recalls how avant-garde artists are often dealing with the limits of art. Second the fact that his work has a source in an art historical chapter that till now was virtually repressed from official art history but, as we speak, is being (re)written: that of psychedelic art, and related types of minimal music specially the ones based on drones or said otherwise sustained notes. Third the prominant place in his practice for musical scores in the form of mental maps, where the musician navigates the map as a territory wherein he goes on “a trip”.
'Orpheus Mirror Room' is Hilary Jeffery’s proper adaptation of the story of the Greek minstrel who with his voice and lyre could mesmerize even the animals and the trees.
Hilary Jeffery:
“Orpheus stands on one side of the mirror and sees Eurydice
Filled with desire to hold her, or even be her
He crosses over to the other side of the mirror
Once there she looks out and sees Orpheus
Filled with desire to hold him, or even be him
She crosses over to the other side of the mirror
Once there he looks out and once more sees Eurydice
So near and yet so far
Letting go of all desire Orpheus accepts that she does not exist
Letting go of all desire Eurydice accepts that he does not exist
So s/he becomes a musician
Walking in the twilight
Playing in between”
The mirror is the motif around which this composition is built. Orpheus, having lost Eurydice first in real life then once more in the netherworld, transforms his experience of an intimate loss in his art. His music becomes the mirror. Hilary Jeffery’s musical piece is driven by a mirror motif. The audio and visual work presented in the piece is a development of ideas and material from his composition Orpheus Mirror for the Veni Ensemble which premiered at Evenings of New Music, Bratislava in October 2008.
In this piece the ensemble of players is divided into two groups. Each group plays music based on the same material. They move through the music in opposite directions in a set time and meet in the middle for a "timeless" improvised section. Accompanying the music of the ensemble is a pre-recorded soundtrack of three sine wave tones, making a slow glissando between 92 and 98 HZ, 185 and 196 HZ, 370 and 392 HZ, sliding from one side to the other and meeting somewhere in the middle as a unison. Within this sound world a soloist plays sustained pitches, exploring the spaces in between attempting to find a unison with the ensemble in the out of time improvisation section. For the first performance Hilary Jeffery played the solo on tromboscillator - a fusion of trombone and electronics. There are two possible versions of this piece, one lasting ca. 11 minutes and the other ca. 66 minutes.
Hilary Jeffery’s interpretation of Orpheus’ story will be set in a surroundings with mirrored windows and coloured lights, creating an atmosphere somewhere between the serene and the seedy. A twilight zone, perhaps not so different from the world we inhabit but with another frequency.
During the time of the exhibition Hilary Jeffery will each day play acoustic trombone as part of his piece, exploring live the mirrored interior.
Opening: Saturday 31st of January from 17.00 to 19.00 hrs with an introduction by Mark Kremer, curator / artwriter. Exhibition runs until 28th of February 2009. Live music performance during the exhibition. Finissage Saturday 28th of February from 19.00 - 21.00 hrs with live music by Hilary Jeffery and members of Lysn.
Go to the Outline Gallery website for more information. Also visit Hilary Jefferey's website.