Unamunos Quorum was formed in the beginning of 1993. The aim of the group was free improvisation, exploring the outer reaches of the human voice and scatting (singing using made-up languages). During 1994 Julie Drysdale who had a background in dance and studied Butoh and Noh theatre in Japan joined our group. Our improvisational ability was initially developed following the workshop-techniques of John Stevens in England and later on we also used methods used by Augusto Boal from Brazil. After our first year of working together we started developing our own workshop methodology and found ourselves in uncharted waters and new and exciting territory. Much to our surprise we found that the skill of improvising, once learned could also be applied to other disciplines, such as movement, plot development and performance art and ultimately even workshopmethod development. These other disciplines also gradually found their way into our repertoire. Consequently our groups work has been categorised as music, soundpoetry, performance-art and so on. So while we still are primarily a musical group our performances often combine a number of art forms, in varying proportions. The size of these proportions and the exact mode of performance however are very much determined by the environment in which we find ourselves. The importance and influence of the environment became clear to us during 1995 while we did a series of recordings in the Sacred Heart Church and also performed in some other unusual places such as stormwater drains and the Old Melbourne Gaol. As part of our improvisation practice we record all our performances and rehearsals and this was extremely helpful in analysing our development. As time went by it became possible to discern patterns peculiar to a particular place, almost like the environment itself performed via the vehicle of our group. We explored this direction further during the Fringe Festival that year with a series of improvised rituals carried out in three different environments.
After this development phase there was a period during which we became aware of a series of ancestral chants, ideas and actions that made their appearance during improvisation. These develop and emerge regardless of which particular grouping of people perform together. This period was an exploration of our collective human musical subconscious, a very intense and Jungian phase. Further development of our workshop techniques, have now brought us in touch with a unique group consciousness that emerges as part of years of improvising and performing together and the way in which this interacts with our environment and the collective musical subconscious. We are only on the brink of understanding this latest development, and the recordings on this CD are the latest report on our progress. This should have all sorts of interesting political implications, since working, performing and making music together with a minimum amount of previously arranged structure gives rise to a creative and exciting anarchy which generates its own complex and interesting structure. Definitely the opposite of chaos (in our opinion). See what you as the listener think.
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