Carved by life, painted with sound

Helen Davey

When the Helen Davey Trio plays, it’s not unusual to see twelve or more instruments on stage, and, of course, just three musicians. Says Helen, “We’re all passionate about sound and like experimenting with unusual sound combinations. ” Like what? “Oh, for example piano and gong, or mandolin and udu.” Does that make it difficult to categorize their music? “Well yes,” concedes Helen. “We came up with the description ‘poetic world folk with a contemporary twist‘, but there are hints of jazz and blues in there too.”

Helen started playing piano and singing her own songs at an early age and first improvised sound scapes publically for a silent film aged nine. Various instruments have lured her since, accordion in more recent years, by necessity.  “A Swiss folk musician contacted me when she was looking for a vocalist and keyboard player to tour with her band. She asked me to write some songs for her programme too. I was pretty chuffed and was preparing for the big day. Then one week before my audition, she phoned to tell me I had to play accordion too. So I had to learn the squeezebox fast.“

Aside from being an accomplished singer-songwriter, Helen has worked as a playwright, composer and arranger for children’s musical productions, and as a musician for improvised theatre and film. “Cross-arts projects are my passion,” she explains. “I love creating music in response to other art forms.” Helen calls this sound-painting. “These are unique interactive improvisations performed in response to something volunteered by the audience”, explains Helen. “Sometimes it’s a story, other times an audience member chooses a piece of art in the room and I’ll sound-paint to that.

I’m really interested in how we relate to others’ experiences and I find that sound-paintings are a great vehicle for tapping into that shared space.  I love the connectedness between strangers that happens in the room at that moment.”

Soon after her move to Switzerland in 2005 Helen began working with David Aebli (double bass, bouzouki, guitar, mandolin). David has been a soloist and accompanist in various outfits playing Sounds of Greece, Irish Folk and Gypsy music. He loves to mix up folk music with a little bit of jazz. Significantly, his love of music extends to hand-crafting most of the instruments he plays.

The duo was joined in 2010 by percussionist Ferdi Rauber (hand drums, didjeridoo, overtone singing). Helen says, “I was looking for a percussionist who would play without sticks, because I wanted subtle textures to be the hallmark of the arrangements for my songs. Ferdi rose to the challenge. He’s a master of nuance.” Taking much of his inspiration from nature, Ferdi has created numerous instruments from stone, wood and metal. He is renowned for his permanent outdoor sound installations at the “Klangweg“ in North-Eastern Switzerland.

The Helen Davey Trio will be touring Victoria in early February. Although the sound-paintings are an integral feature of the trio’s live shows, the main purpose of the tour is to showcase Helen’s newly released collection of original songs on her “Carvings” CD. The album explores the theme of life leaving its tracings on us, linking us with others. Carvings was recorded by the trio in the European Summer of 2011. The CD has been described as “Music to re-enchant your senses”.

Maurocco Bar, Castlemaine – Saturday 11 February, 5pm, $15/$12. Tel 03 5472 1085