Conversations Prelude was commissioned for the 100XJohn festival at White Box, NYC, in celebration of of John Cage's 100th birthday.

The idea for this music arises from a number of visits to Bundanon in Australia, where I undertook explorations in engaging in conversations with the landscape. These conversations took several forms: ambisonic recordings of the natural environment; piano wire fixed between trees to record the sounds generated by the movement of the tree trunks in the wind (tightening and loosening the tension of the wires) and through bowing and striking the wires; and vocalisations recorded as improvised conversations with the land and the birds. These materials come together here as a prelude to an ongoing inquiry into the ways in which we converse with nature on a daily basis. And I'm playing a flute as one example of my part of the conversation

Composed and performed by Garth Paine. Animation by Garth Paine