As listeners to the experimental, improvised, Jazz, Ethiopian and style-free music communities in Sydney will testify, Peter Farrar has been doing astonishing solos the last few years. He’s been honing techniques that use various extensions on his alto sax, (mainly plastic bags and bottles as mutes). Instead of an instrumental line, he produces startling layers of distorted tones and overtones with pervasive, insistent, generative rhythms. This is pioneering research — he has re-imagined the instrument. ‘Avocado’ was recorded over a period of months at Tempe Jets from late 2014 to early 2015. From many hours of recordings, 4 iconic tracks have been chosen. There is a sense of the pioneering virtuosic, and a sense of naïve and random speculation. There is a casual approach to performance and also at times long sections of circular breath intensity. You think you are listening to a classic solo instrumental album and then track 3 (green stripes) becomes a field recording with rain and distant jets. Always there is a rigorous focus on the materiality of the sonic phenomena he is releasing. He’s a M O N S T E R.
