UNCONVENTIONAL cellist Kristin Rule will bring her moving images and live cello performance to Mildura this May.
The performance will form part of the musician’s Slow Ride album launch tour that will see the her embark on a bicycle tour across Australia.
In line with her environmental beliefs, Rule will travel more than 1000km by a specially made cargo bicycle, carrying her cello and equipment from performance to performance.
“It’s very freeing, I absolutely love it, I think once you get out on the bike, everything you are worried about seems to leave your mind,” she told Sunraysia Daily.
A composition graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts, Rule found her voice in the form of the cello.
The unique musician began to play at a young age and cites her early music influences as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jacqueline Du Pre, Debussy, Stravinsky and Rostropovich.
“I was about 12 when I first started, it was the one I wanted to play and I think it was my mum that said I should play the violin because it was the easiest to carry,” she said.
“It’s funny now that I’m riding a bike with the cello.”
The Slow Ride album launch tour will see Rule present original compositions from her latest album, The Knife that Cuts a Tear.
In performance, her original compositions are created live, layer by layer, mesmerising audiences with exquisite melodies, rich harmonies and beautifully raw sonorities.
“I use a lot of creative techniques on the cello to add different colours and textures to the music to give it that rich sound,” she said.
“The music I play are original compositions made with a special device called a loop station – it records the music and makes lots of layers.
“It all happens live, there’s nothing prerecorded so the audience is able to come on a journey.”
The performance also involves the use of moving images to add a visible delight to the show.
“For a lot of the performances I use moving images that I’ve created,” she said.
“The images add to the performance but the main focus is the music.”
The cellist has previously embarked on a similar 20 week tour by motorcycle, in which she visited Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, performing an average of six concerts a week in metropolitan and regional communities and schools.
This tour sees Rule embark on a journey to Mildura, Swan Hill, Echuca, Heathcote and Bendigo.
Prior to her May 7 performance, Rule will arrive in Mildura on May 1 to work with local string students of all ages from the Mildura string ensemble.
The performer said she enjoyed exposing students to her unique approach of combining a loop station and electronic effects with traditional cello.
“It demonstrates what you can actually do on a wonderful instrument and what you can do when you add technology to that,” she said.
“The students frequently are inspired, it’s been the case with string workshops that you start to hear students in their breaks playing lots of fun and strange music on their instruments.
“It’s about thinking outside the square, it encourages them to get a different look at what you can do an on an instrument.”
Unconventional cellist Kristin Rule will perform at the Mercy Theatre on Saturday, May 7 at 7.30pm.
This story appeared in Friday’s Sunraysia Daily 25/03/2011.
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