Anoesis- Just playing in the moment

Virginia Ginnane

‘Bird’ coined the phrase back in the day: “Master your instrument, master the music, then forget all the bulls**t and just play.” Easy for the sax legend Charlie Parker to say, but his aphorism has given wings to an emerging Sydney jazz band, Anoesis. “Just play and leave cognition at the door” is their moniker’s rough translation. “You have to learn the music, and then forget it,” explains bass player Tomas McKeever Ford. “That’s a good way of thinking about the improvisation process … leave the musician’s ego aside … be in the moment of the performance, allow musicians and audience to be involved in the collective music-making.”

Photo by Harriet Lucy

Anoesis: 2022 Fine Music Artists in Residence Tomas has been making music with his band members Greg Stopic (alto saxophone, Alistair Johnston (tenor saxophone and Eitan Muir (electric guitar since early 2017 when they were studying music at UNSW. Drummer Ryu Kodama joined Anoesis in 2019 not long after the band was awarded the ‘Best Band’ runner-up in a 13-country line-up at the Bucharest International Jazz competition. “Bucharest broadened us personally and musically, leading to all kinds of plans for the future. And then it all stopped,” he says of the pandemic’s music freeze.

After two years of rolling lockdowns, the Jazz Artist in Residence program created the right impetus. “We’ve been very fortunate to receive this to kickstart performing again,” says Kodama. “I think a lot of people don’t realise how much work independent artists must do to produce and release material. Never mind being creative and honing your craft! So for us as emerging artists, to have this help from Fine Music Sydney to promote our work is just wonderful. So, we’re very, very grateful to have had this residency.”

Anoesis: Album launch The Artist in Residence program provided recording of their second album, Dancing Waters, in the Founders Studio. It is a showcase of their unique sound and the richness of their composition. “I’d like to think that when you hear our music, it can be identified as original,” says Tomas. “I think part of our story is really about making the music our own as much as possible.”

All the tracks are written by the band, with Greg the most prolific composer penning four of the eight tracks. Tomas started writing the title track during a visit to Queensland’s Purling Brook falls, in Springbrook National Park. Its indigenous name Gwongorella in the local Yugambeh language, translates as ‘Dancing waters’. Inspired by the beauty of this ancient heritage site with its waterfalls tumbling down the canyon, Tomas fleshed out the baseline and chords and took it to the group.

“The process for developing music within the band is democratic,” says Tomas, “and the composer of a particular piece is almost always very open to try things differently, so often there can be quite a bit of workshopping. We all have an equal say in how that composition evolves. Pretty much everything that comes in, we really work on and really love.”

It was a group decision for Dancing Waters to become the title track. Along with Alistair’s piece Regenerates, and other original compositions, the album reflects a theme of ‘the beauty of our country and the experiences that we have in these places that are just otherworldly. But also, to recognise and acknowledge the very dark colonial history that this country still hasn’t properly addressed, as well as the climate disaster that we seem to be entering.’

Then there are the songs drawing on the search for infinite space.

American jazz influences With their sound centred in contemporary or modern jazz, it is also influenced by European folk, Middle Eastern jazz and folk music, classical music, rock, Western African styles, “and whatever else” says Tomas, including the deep spirit of the golden eras of American jazz, from the 30s through the 60s.

For the album launch on Thursday 17 November at Johnston Street Jazz, Anoesis will be performing songs from the album plus the debut of a lot of new material debut. “This will hopefully allow listeners to experience the concept that we’ve put together with this album while also demonstrating what else we have and continue to work on.” In the moment, on the night.