#thecolourwheel

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Gorgeous painting by @camilladerrico "Vitae Arcu" for her newly opened show "The Colour Wheel" at @coreyhelfordgallery⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ posted on Instagram - https://instagr.am/p/CA3MK0NpneJ/

[inspirationstationsydney-blog]

#thecolourwheel #colourtheory #gloriousCOLOUR

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#thecolourwheel

[jane-remedio]

The Colour Wheel – Jim Moginie’s Electric Guitar Orchestra

By Jane Remedio

MEMO Music Hall, St Kilda Melbourne. 29th October 2016

Entering the MEMO Music Hall is like walking into a cavern of dreams where the elements of style, music, and art are about to collide. Tonight the air is filled with nervous anticipation, the kind when you know that you are about to experience something truly extraordinary.  

From the outset it is obvious that this is not a normal gig. A blank canvas wheel stands sentinel at stage left, like a sponge ready to absorb the night’s performance.  On the stage music stands are placed neatly in a row, each adorned with a music score, waiting for the Electric Guitar Orchestra to arrive. Michael Trifunovic, Jim Moginie, Kent Steedman, Alex Young, Tim Kevin and Matthew Steffen take to the stage, they are ready to paint music with their guitars.  

 Each perfectly balanced guitar rides the atmospheric wave of warmth and tone, whilst embracing the shadows of darkness, light and shade for the entire performance. The onstage banter is filled with frivolity and laughter. Singers and drummers aren’t missed, tonight is all about celebrating the guitar.  

Tonight’s performance is an education in understanding synaesthesia and its effect on the human condition.  The Collins dictionary defines synaesthesia as ‘noun (psychol) the subjective sensation of a sense other than the one being stimulated. For example, a sound may evoke sensations of colour’.

Jim Moginie’s ‘The Colour Wheel for Six Guitars’ leads you on an adventure to understanding that colour and music is based on perception.  Unlike traditional orchestral performances you are openly encouraged to participate, and not be a passive spectator. ‘The Colour Wheel’ encourages you to let your imagination take over. As each opus washes over you, your mind wanders and you could be swimming in an ocean of cool water, feeling your bare feet on concrete in a scorching Aussie summer, laying on luscious spring grass, remembering Prince, or feeling the urgency to escape obscurity. It’s up to you and your life’s influences.  

It’s a well-known fact that musicians want to be artists and artists want to be musicians. It’s hardly surprising as at its core each craft desires to elicit an emotional response, and to make connections with its audience. Musicians usually do this en-masse to an assembled crowd, where artists attempt to capture one soul at a time. Tonight’s performance sees a crossover of these roles; it seems anything is possible when art and music are each other’s muse.

Painters, Stephen Coburn and Chantal Mahoney use thoughtful, considered brushstrokes and tones to create art that can inspire others. Like their fore bares Kandinsky, Klee, Schoenberg, and De Maistre they use melody and harmony in the colour palette to create a unique visual experience that will illuminate your soul.

The suite ends in a kaleidoscope of colours with a kick ass booming rock god finish. No doubt inspired by Jim Moginie’s own teenage musical influences. The musicians depart the stage, guitars propped up on amps and guitar stands. The music scores lay discarded on the stage. They are no longer needed as the completed wheel stands as a memory of what has passed. Like all forms of art, the meaning is different to each of us, dictated by our life story. The completed wheel is representative of the song of life and its possibilities, its hardships and its beauty. As you walk out the door and into the night, for years to come you will be forever listening for the music in art, and for the art in music. You may even be inspired to pick up a pencil, or paint brush, and recapture your youth through art.

It is sad to hear that this will be one of the final performances of ‘The Colour Wheel’ for some time.  Jim Moginie is joining Midnight Oil next year to spread more joy to the world through live music.  This writer can only hope that the hiatus is not a long one, and that others will have the chance to experience Jim Moginie’s Electric Guitar Orchestra and the amazing world of synaesthesia.

The Colour Wheel album is available from:

Reverberama: http://www.reverberama.com.au/?page=Artists

Download: Bandcamp https://jimmoginie.bandcamp.com/