TIDAL response
TIDAL Response is an audio work by Rio Soemardjo, created in response to the 2023 installation ‘To pitch a tent, to pull it back down’ at Mission to Seafarers’ Norla Dome (Docklands, Narrm/Melbourne).
'To pitch a tent, to pull it back down' was created as part of Next Wave's TIDAL research commission. TIDAL called on Aaron Claringbold, Eliki Reade, Jack Mitchell, and Rebecca McCauley to extend on their body of work involving waterways and river systems. Through this, TIDAL was an invitation to experiment new ideas together, and to experiment the very act of collaboration – towards a strengthening of shared practice and creative relationships.
This recording features Ria’s vocals, her handmade ceramic flutes, percussion and field recordings – created and recorded on Wurundjeri land.
A family gathering, mapping grief
delicate bleeding of salt into sound.
Camping out on a tiny island amidst towering apartments.
The vulnerability of our lungs.
The short finned eel, the survivor, the shape shifter trickster.
Curious, I sought them out, but all had disappeared for the winter except for a handful of eels kept in captivity in Carlton. Maybe working their way through the pipes that divert the streams and springs that were originally there. I watch them lilt and weave in a pond. Slowly raising round mouths above water to reach the food sprinkled on the surface for them. Warned of their sandpaper teeth, they nudge my underwater microphone, disinterested, mostly silent and sluggish, ready to hibernate.
I promise to return to them in spring, hoping to hear their song.
One day the Seafarers haven may be engulfed by water and traffic, creeping closer millimetre by millimetre.
All life begins and ends with a song.
Singing 3 short laments into water.
How does country call us back again?
The photographs hown in the video were taken by Roslyn Oades, Ria Soemardjo and Mae Hartrick.
Ria Soemardjo
Ria Soemardjo is a Melbourne-based musician with a passion for collaborations across a diverse range of genres and artforms. She has created and performed music for independent contemporary dance and theatre projects in Australia and Asia.
Her evocative, textured soundscapes are often performed live using an eclectic array of unusual instruments including voice, gamelan, frame drums and her own handcrafted clay flutes and drums. Her distinct, haunting vocal style and musicality reflects her Australian/Javanese cultural heritage and a deep appreciation for the timbres, rhythmic complexity and the ceremonial association of Balinese and Javanese gamelan traditions. She continues to learn and perform traditional Javanese vocal repertoire, as a soloist with both Sydney and Melbourne gamelan ensembles.
A sought-after collaborator, Ria’s recent performance highlights include presentations of both traditional and original music at Melbourne Recital Centre, Port Fairy Folk Festival, National Folk Festival and a sold-out La Mama season of ‘The Swallows’ - a new theatre/music work featuring acclaimed actor Helen Morse and cellist Helen Mountfort. 'Fine Blue Thread' – her contemporary world music trio (also featuring Mountfort and Sam Evans on tabla/percussion) – released their third album in 2023.
Ria’s collaborations with theatre/dance artists reflect her deep interest in developing powerful contemporary performance/rituals, often in response to natural or urban sites. With long-term collaborator, dancer Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal, she presented an excerpt at Marrugeku’s ‘Contested lands’ dance dramaturgy forum 2023 (Sydney) along with a cohort of leading Indigenous and intercultural artists. The full-length version of this duet ‘Ngayomi’ premiered at Bundanon Gallery and in Sydney in 2024.
Photo by Max Milne