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Reviews

Unusual, certainly; colourful in effect, yes; strange, undoubtedly; exciting, without reservation. The aural palettes, in turn minimalist, vibrant, mesmerising and even industrial, defy easy categorisation.

Kim Lockwood, Herald Sun


It's an odd combination. The trombone blares, pianos rumble and the vibraphone plinks. Rousing themes are accompanied by a grumbling undertow or abruptly abandoned, while the piano bumbles like a bee at a windowpane; a searing lament is absorbed by the dinky tinkling of the music box it emerges from. The net effect is strangely euphonious...

...a raindrop theme is thumbed on toy piano and fleshed out with legato violin; orchestral mutterings reach a mutinous pitch and are silenced by the trombone's warthog roar; a series of preparatory pawings at the manuscript are run together like stammering speech.

Best of all is 'Bells Of Leipzig', where the bells clank like a cornershop door in a fitful wind. A cello enters briefly but the music is already somewhere else, long since departed, never to return. The loss is keenly felt, suggesting emotional wounds, psychic traumas and blighted landscapes. The devastation is irreparable.

Chesworth's ability to suggest so much with so little vindicates his cerebral approach. Neither idle nor smug, his stratagems provoke and confound, stimulating both thought and feeling with the shock of a new aesthetic: penetrating restraint. Silence speaks volumes, uponatimes...

Bleddyn Butcher, The Wire, UK

Minimalst elements influenced the music of David Chesworth who bought his own ensemble to perform an attractive suite inspired by the film 'Badlands'. An amplified violin repeats simple cells of melody as volume and sonic density builds and boils over...

Jeremy Eichler, Newsday, New York. Bang on a Can Marathon 2001, concert review

a group of musicians with some extraordinary skills... superb use of interjectory comment...the clever conversation between the violin of Hope Csutoros and the cello of Helen Mountfort reflected not only Chesworth's considerable talent in an attacking style but also allowed a degree of showmanship...boldly delivered by the musicians.

Jeremy Vincent, The Australian

Chesworth's instrumental composition and soundscapes are nothing less than magnificent.

Chris Boyd, The Melbourne Times

with a reputation as one of Australia's most exciting creative forces...

Michael Easton, The Age