Lloyd Swanton’s Ambon
Following the sold out premiere in the Blue Mountains, this is the Sydney debut of Lloyd Swanton’s new suite of 12 compositions featuring a stellar 12-piece ensemble. Lloyd Swanton’s Uncle Stuart served in the doomed Gull Force on the island of Ambon during WWII, sent there to defend the “Dutch East Indies” from the Japanese invasion. His uncle died in the shocking Japanese POW camp on the island the day before war ended. Tracing through a secret diary written in code by Uncle Stuart during his imprisonment Lloyd has taken many of the accounts and created a celebration and remembrance of the uncle he never met. It’s called Ambon Suite.
Ambon is such an ambitiously large-scale integration of music, spoken word and projected images that this world premiere lasted two-and-a-half hours. If structurally slightly too long, it is an extraordinary achievement in terms of conception, content and realising Swanton’s desire to illuminate and commemorate the suffering and resilience of these Australian servicemen.
Ambon brings together hymns, work song, gospel, military marches, island music and jazz, to create something of beauty out of great horror, in the process offering us insight into a little-known tragedy in our recent past.
Who: Lloyd Swanton
When: Thursday 27th August 2015 at 8:30 PM
Where: The Sound Lounge