Concert By Sea: exploring the sound of surfing

Concert By Sea: exploring the sound of surfing

By Sam Bleakley

I’m always excited to hear about new events that explore the relationship between surfing and music. Surfing alone is a powerful art form, but just because you are leaving tracks on waves, inscriptions on the water, this does not mean that you can transfer this easily to an exciting performance. Something else is needed to give surf events a lift, zip, angle, or element of surprise, perhaps more a dance than an installation. How about surfing to music? The rich, the frantic, the soulful, the hard-driving, the rhythmic, the open, the graceful, the fluid, the cool, the lyrical. This is surfing with music’s prescription - oily waters underfoot, wind stripping foam from the wave’s lip as you glide by, bending the cutback so hard that your single fin pops clear in a sharp wail, and then snap back as the wave collapses whole and you kick out in an arc that allows you to seamlessly snatch the surfboard in mid-air, land with grace and paddle out with a gaze already anticipating and summarising the coming set wave. Every surfer knows this songline.

And what about playing music to surfing, facilitated through another great art form: film? A few years ago The Australian Chamber Orchestra started taking musicians and surfers on an annual trip to northern Western Australia to create performance pieces linking waveriding, the ocean, landscape and classical music: already explored in MusicaSurfica and The Glide.

Good friend Emiliano Cataldi recently worked at the 2015 event, so I was eager to find out more:

How important do you think it is to further explore the links between surfing and music?

If you think of a surf film, or even a short web clip, you’ll know that the music is as important as the imagery. You cannot really watch surfing without some sort of soundtrack, it just doesn't feel right. You can find all sorts of analogies between surfing and music, which essentially come down to waves: when you surf you travel on a wave, and so does the music when it travels across space in sound waves. Riding waves is so intrinsically linked to both surfing and music that the two things were almost meant to be coupled. That's why good surfing is so much better if enjoyed with good music. 

I think we've only just scratched the surface on the relationship between music and surfing. In many ways this relationship is a lot more intimate than we realise, and runs a lot deeper than just editing some wave riding to a catchy tune.

Tell me about the context of the Australian Chamber Orchestra event - where was it and what was happening?

The filming of The Reef Redux took place in Gnaraloo, in the north west of Western Australia, which is one of Australia's most wave rich areas. It is also an iconic part of the country as the landscape is quintessential Australian, where the red soil and the vast expanse of brush on the edge of the desert meets the big blue Indian Ocean. It's a place like no other, for sure. That's where the filming of the original 'The Reef' film took place in 2012.

Basically The Reef is an art project that combines stunning Ocean and landscape imagery to the music played live by The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) during their concerts. It's a unique experience to attend one of those concerts because it adds a stunning visual component to the music, in a quirky, innovative and dynamic way. The result is unlike anything I've ever witnessed. Every scene is thought with a specific piece of music in mind, so the creative process is a lot more complex than your standard film. 

From what I could see there is a lot of cross pollination and a lot of back and forth between creating the images and composing or adapting the music. It's really fascinating. Mick Sowry (the director), JonFrank (director of photography), Richard Tognetti (artistic director and leader of the ACO) and Satu Vänskä (assistant leader of the ACO) were constantly brainstorming while watching the footage after every shoot, playing impromptu to the music and discussing ideas. And it was all happening in a remote campsite in Western Australia...pretty out there if you think about it!

Anyway, the reason they decided to do some more filming and compose new music for The Reef is that the ACO will be touring the show in America and they felt they wanted to add something special to it for an international audience, hence this project in 2015.

Which surfers took part?

All the surfers that took part in the filming where also involved in the original The Reef back in 2012. Ryan Burch from San Diego and the Beevor brothers from Sydney (Dane and Tully). Taylor (Miller) and I came onboard to film some underwater scenes.

Who were the musicians?

Richard Tognetti and Satu Vänskä were the only ACO representatives this time, but the whole ACO is involved in the project of course. Last time they brought a dozen or so musicians to the desert and by all accounts it was incredible to see them playing in old tin sheds out in the countryside. 

We're talking about world class musicians in their fields, so to have them involved in a project like this and watch them play up close and personal is unlike any other musical experience you've ever had. You know you're part of something special when they're so close to you that you can feel the vibrations of their instruments through your skin and body.

How was the filming achieved? 

Jon Frank, who's one of the most accomplished surf and water photographers of our time, would usually swim out in the lineup with a RED camera in a water housing, while Ed Saltau and Mick Sowry would take care of the land angle. The way they used the light to create the magic was just phenomenal. They came back with some gold after every shoot. Their success rate is beyond imaginable.

What was more powerful: the surfing or the film-work?

In a project like this all the components are so interconnected that you cannot really separate them or pick them apart: it's the marriage of the three which creates a storm for the senses. 

When you put world class surfers out in world class waves like Gnaraloo, the surfing is simply mind blowing, and as a surfer being able to watch it unfold so close and personal to the action was a visual treat. 

I've always had a strong passion for photography and image making as well, so to be able to work closely with Jon and Mick and Ed and watch them doing their thing and wait for the best light and create the magic every time was a real treat.

Knowing that you're working on something unique is a special feeling, and doing so while camping out in the desert in front of perfect waves just adds to the magic. I think out of everyone, Taylor and I had the best time, surfing, hanging out with our dog Buntine (who's also in the film!), and eating three meals a day. To us it almost felt like a holiday!

What was the highlight?

On a personal level I really enjoyed our shoot, when we swam out to the reef before sunrise and filmed for about an hour underwater with the rays of the morning sun beaming through the water and the waves. That was so beautiful that I almost forgot about all the sea life surrounding us.

Also Richard and Satu had a couple of impromptu jam sessions around the camp fire with their violins that I absolutely loved: the music, the place and the energy is something that cannot be captured with words.

But my favorite memories are definitely the long surfs at Tombstones: three to four feet light offshore and reeling for hundreds of meters down the reef with hardly anyone around. The surf gets so big and perfect up there that people don't even surf it when it's fun...crazy!! We were all-over it though and loved every minute of it.