Reuben Lewis – The House is Empty

Reuben Lewis

Presented by Melbourne Recital Centre & Reuben Lewis

Details

‘A vivid listening experience that gleams with sinister detail.’ – The Wire

For the first time, ARIA-nominated composer, producer and improviser, Reuben Lewis will perform a complete live iteration of his debut solo record, The House is Empty. Released on esteemed ambient label Shimmering Moods, Lewis employs a deceptive mix of trumpet, electronics, field recordings and synthesizers to create what critics have lauded as ‘a vivid listening experience that gleams with sinister detail’. Playing on the listeners’ expectations, Lewis aims to unravel all semblance of familiar form to deliver a moving sonic experience that ‘is beyond category’.

About the concert

Composed over a two-year period, The House is Empty delivers a series of meditative works that gently guide the listener to develop a curiosity and comfortability with the unknown. Piece by piece, stories, and symbols are shattered to create a new narrative, one that is just between listeners and Lewis’ sound world. Through his lush and vast soundscapes, it is easy to become engulfed as the works reveal an infinite sonic topography that must be experienced live to feel the levels of power and beauty.

COVID Safety

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Artists & Program

Artists

Reuben Lewis trumpet, electronics
Tony Yap dancer

Program

Reuben Lewis
The House is Empty
Together | Apart
He’s Like You
Animal | God

Reviews

‘A mixture of various samplings and live trumpet, the work is a meditation on embodied memory and includes fragmentary voice recordings that hint at trauma. At one point we hear laughter, but it is the laughter of “pain and confusion”; there is a conversation about traumas of childhood and age and a poem about the shadows and pain of love, which is serenaded by a nearby kookaburra. With its subterranean fractures and slippages, Lewis’s work feels strangely appropriate to its setting.’ – The Saturday Paper

‘A vivid listening experience that gleams with sinister detail.’ The Wire
‘There is a vast, monolithic intensity to this slow-moving music, fabricated as a trance inducing wall-of-sound that oscillates, ebbs and flows.’ – Rhythms Magazine

‘Musician and producer Reuben Lewis begins his set with a deep, tonal synth that seems to resonate off the natural stone architectures beyond the trees. The performance is an hour-long sonic journey through layers of ethereal synth and field recordings, mixed with live trumpet and sampled spoken word. The voice is that of Tony Yap – dancer, philosopher, and Lewis’ long-term collaborator – directing us to listen, and to feel.’ – The Conversation

‘What is happening here? Lewis is active in what appears to be a new genre in Australian jazz and has taken this mode of expression to a new level of sophistication.’ – The Australian

Venue