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Audio Drama

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Goddesses and Rabbits

Goddesses and Rabbits is Iolini’s homage to his mother, to all mothers and to Malta – the island of the Great Goddess.

Iolini takes us on a personal and at times surreal voyage of (re)discovery to his mother’s homeland, the island of Malta. Along the way we encounter mysterious 7000-year-old megalithic goddess temples, Madonna cults, rabbit restaurants, and an eclectic assortment of characters.

This is a work that is simultaneously travelogue, drama, fiction, documentary, biography and contemporary opera!

Goddesses and Rabbits extends the boundaries of what traditionally defines a musical composition, using spoken word, songs, field recordings, electro-acoustic textures, improvised and detailed scored performances, all crafted into an original work for your listening pleasure.

Commissioned and produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Credits

Roberto Iolini – Writer, Composer, Sound-designer, Performer, Producer

Karen Cummings – Vocalist
Wadih Dona – Actor
Lucia Mastrantone – Actor

Recorded at ABC studios Ultimo, Sydney, 2003
Robyn Ravlich – Executive Producer The Listening Room
Russell Stapleton – Sound Engineer + additional sound design

The Sound Of Forgetting

The Sound of Forgetting is a non linear narrative work that uses ‘lost sounds’ from Sydney’s past, media archives and scripted dialogues to explore issues of identity – property ownership – denial of history – corporate greed – legal and illegal violence – government cynicism – loss of self, function and place – mass media – the relevance of art – colonialism – surveillance – social engineering – public space. In the work, the character of Sha and her alter ego A’Shamedia function as a vehicle to convey Iolini’s concerns about contemporary western urban life. Sydney is the space that the character inhabits and acts as a kind of generic city model. The protagonist’s inner dialogues, which consist of rephrased quotes and original text, relate not only to herself, but to Sydney, both metaphorically and literally. Sha in a sense, is a media archaeologist excavating socio-political events. During the process she is also on an internal journey, excavating parts of herself. Through her thoughts, discoveries and creative output we are taken on a journey that embraces universal concerns which affect many of us today.

The Sound of Forgetting was produced while Iolini was New Media Artist in residence at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s acoustic arts program The Listening Room. The project was supported by the ABC and The Australia Council for the Arts New Media Board.

The Sound of Forgetting was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s entry for the 2005 Karl Sczuka Prize

Credits

Roberto Iolini – Writer, Composer, Sound-designer, Producer
Amanda Stewart – Actor Virginia Baxter – Actor

Recorded at ABC studios Ultimo, Sydney, 2004
Robyn Ravlich – Executive Producer The Listening Room
Russell Stapleton – Sound Engineer

The Holographic Ear

Mn is sleeping in bed. The sun is rising on another apparently normal day, outside the birds are singing. He begins to stir, there’s something odd about the birdsong – sounding more like a complex musical composition it gradually builds in intensity, as it reaches a crescendo Mn wakes up with a start.
Thus begins a journey of transformation in which Mn is subjected to a series of extraordinary encounters that force him to confront the nature of reality and perception.

Commissioned and produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Credits

Roberto Iolini – Writer, Composer, Sound-designer, Producer
Wei Zen Ho – Vocalist
Christopher Saunders – Actor

Recorded at ABC studios Ultimo, Sydney, 2005
Robyn Ravlich – Executive Producer The Listening Room
Andrei Shubanov – Sound Engineer

Rise Above The Living

Rise above the Living traces the history of Northcott told from the point of view of the building itself – the Building as a living organism, a witness – keeper of secrets and knowledge. The music is a mixture of spoken word, melodic electronic chamber music and musique concrete.

The work is a response to Iolini’s experiences while working as Musical Director for a theatre project at John Northcott Place, the first high-rise public housing estate in Sydney, Australia.

Multimedia theatre production Sticky Bricks, premiered at the 2006 Festival of Sydney by Big hArt inc.

Rise above the Living was commissioned and produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Credits

Roberto Iolini – Writer, Composer, Sound-designer, Producer
Rhys Muldoon – Actor
Margaret Scholes, Lea Redfern, Libby Douglas – Additional Actors

Recorded at ABC studios Ultimo, Sydney, 2005
Robyn Ravlich – Executive Producer The Listening Room
Russell Stapleton – Sound Engineer

Heartwork

A radio feature which explores important issues facing marginalised young people in the Australian community. The work centres around eight ‘songs’ each containing a recording of a young person narrating an experience of family violence or disfunction. The vocal recordings were taken from the film soundtrack of ‘Hurt’ the award winning feature length docu film directed by Phillip Crawford. For Heartwork the music in each song was derived from the rhythmic and melodic patterns inherent in each speaker’s speech patterns. The piece is partly composed of materials Iolini gathered during the development and final production of the ‘Big hArt Works’ project performed at the 2000 Adelaide Festival, Australia.

Commissioned and produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Credits

Roberto Iolini – Composer, Sound-designer, Producer

Recorded at ABC studios Ultimo, Sydney, 2001
Robyn Ravlich – Executive Producer The Listening Room
Andrei Shubanov – Sound Engineer