Earth + Sky Review
Loni Fitzpatrick & Stu Harcourt
Mossman
On a little stage, in a little hall, in a little town in Yalanji country, there stood a golden harp, an electric guitar and a didjeridoo. The hall was filled glowing lights and candles and people relaxing on mats and cushions awaiting the debut performance of Earth + Sky.
The musicians took the stage. Harpist Loni Fitzpatrick wore all white, and I couldnʼt help but think of an angel or priestess. Her counterpart guitarist & didj player Stu Harcourt was a little more rough around the edges, but it was he who gently invited everyone to bring their spirits to the moment and allow for random acts of healing to take place.
He explained that the duo have only been playing together for a couple of months. They had found an artistic kinship with hints of an exciting thread in their music, and tonight they would be sharing what they had been working on.
To begin, low tones of the didjeridoo reverberated through the hall, blending with sparkling high strings. As the harp settled downwards in a hypnotic repetitive pattern, Harcourt changed to electric guitar, contributing small licks and comments around the harp.
During the first few sections it seemed that the musicians were trying to find each other, but just missing slightly. Fitzpatrick kept going with her harp patterns, even stubbornly so. It wasnʼt untonal, it was sweet and beautiful, and while sometimes changing, it was just … constant.
Itʼs often the case with improvised and experimental music that you donʼt know if itʼs going to work or not. The artists have an idea, a mission, a question, and they bravely test it with a live audience. Miles Davis once said that if he achieved ten minutes worth of pure music in a live gig he considered it a success.
Before long, very suddenly, the chemistry connected and... POW!!! WOW! Whoa! OMG thatʼs beautiful. They hit a vein of sublime, some kind of glue which interwove their two parts immaculately making a sparkling river of pure energy, all parts greater than the sum.
It was interesting to observe their dialogue of different musical vocabularies. Where, but for the addition of some subtle effects, the harp voice was mostly classical straight down the line, the guitar voice was steeped in blues and jazz, and in fact the point where they meet with such intensity is quite a specific destination.
I happen to know that Loni Fitzpatrick has a penchant for Steve Reich or Nils Frahm type minimalist phasing, and now her persistence made sense. She was waiting to catch the phase, a bit like fishing. While she held the line steady, Stu Harcourtʼs creativity came streaming through with myriad approaches and moods.
Each time they connected it was like entering a constellation, where nebulae bloomed in full colour and you were held amazed within the matrix of the surrounding stars. We would move on and float through black space for a while, watching random stars pass and fade, unsure of where to next. Then weʼd arrive into another constellation, each one different from before, and each one exquisitely real.
As the duo brought the music to a close the guitarist held his hand over his heart as if to physically stop its outpouring. The performers looked at each other with gratitude and happiness. Slowly the peaceful audience came out of their trances to applaud their gratitude in return. The performers thanked us for sharing in their journey.
The horizons are promising for this new duo, Earth + Sky.