BOLT ENSEMBLE

 "The Sunday evening performance at the North Melbourne Town Hall was presented in impressive 16 speaker surround sound, with the performers in the middle of the space and the audience divided into 2 blocks facing each other. James Hullick presented a composition for various instruments, vocalists and soundscape. The piece had a radiophonic feel, as acoustic instrumental explorations skittered around the room, accompanied by barely discernible voices, snippets of text floating to the surface above surging field recording atmospherics. This nicely crafted and spatialised piece took on an even more impressive dimension, when at the conclusion the stage curtain opened to reveal the musicians and actors who had in fact been performing live.”

ABOUT THE BOLT ENSEMBLE

The BOLT Ensemble is a music and sound art ensemble dedicated to presenting projects artistically directed by James Hullick. There is a focus on working with techniques and ideas that exist outside mainstream music practices and there is a focus on working combining traditional music instruments with technology. Projects take the form of concerts, radio broadcasts, multimedia events, music theatre, gallery based installations, recordings and recordings. While BOLT does tend to work towards creating innovative projects, the act of being innovative for innovation's sake is something the ensemble has worked hard to avoid. Rather, the BOLT Ensemble is dedicated to providing audiences with listening and sensory experiences that pose questions, rather than answers, about culture, communities and the quest for better living.

The BOLT Ensemble was formed in 2004, before JOLT Arts Inc. had been created. The ensemble has never had a fixed line-up, fluidly changing depending on the demands of any given project. The ensemble can be as small as two players or as large as twenty. BOLT's founding members were Imelda Baligod and Will Martina and they formed the core of the ensemble during its early development before both Imelda and Will moved overseas - Imelda to London and Will to New York. Since that time the regular members of the ensemble have been Martin Mackerras, Adam Simmons and Peter Neville. Biographies of the various artists currently working with BOLT are given at the bottom of this page. 

BOLT performing in NEBULON at Bennets Lane. photos by: Warren Fithie

PROJECTS

Listed below are projects undertaken by BOLT that currently remain in repertoire. Click on the links to read more about the events the projects have been involved in.

SHIMMERSONG (with the Footscray Community Arts Centre's AMPLIFIED ELEPHANTS)

for chamber orchestra, synthesizers and video (2007)

SK-EYE-LIKE MIND (in JOLT's INTERACTACON concert)

by Hullick for flute, clarinet, sax, viola, double bass, percussion and realtime score (2007)

SWALLOWING MACHINE (in JOLT's NEBULON concert)

by Hullick for flute, clarinet, sax, percussion and quadraphonic electronics (2007)

THE WHITENESS (LIQUID ARCHITECTURE 2005)

by Hullick for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, sax and realtime score (2005)

+ REDUCTION (KINGS ARI GALLERY)

by Hullick for pre-recorded violins and cellos and CD players (2004)

ONE CUTE MOTHER (CONICAL GALLERY)

by Hullick for violins (2004)

Upcoming 2009 projects for BOLT are:

THE NIS (with the AMPLIFIED ELEPHANTS)

a mutli-media/music theatre event for large chamber ensemble, sound artists, theatre performers, animations and 2D gaming sequences (2009)

GOTHIC SONICA 

a collection of compositions presented over 3 concerts developed by BOLT drawing on the chamber orchestra line-up (2009)

CONTACT

The BOLT ENSEMBLE are managed through JOLT Arts Inc. by:

JAMES HULLICK

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

click this link to contact page

BOLT ENSEMBLE: BIOS