THE ODD RIVER
Deep in nature, out of time, through a river portal, a young woman discovers a genetically modified food source that gives her strange visions of the end of the natural world.
A 30 minute album + film in collaboration with filmmaker Angus Kirby
MUSIC
The Odd River is Finnish-born Melbourne-based bassist vocalist composer Helen Svoboda’s surreal musical evocation of the collision of organic and inorganic, of the natural and unnatural. Her driving inspiration is her environment, she is struck by the weirdness of what we have done to natural world - and happily admits to being obsessed with finding uncustomary sounds, and ways of playing her instrument.
FILM
Filmmaker Angus Kirby brings to life the rich soundscape to create a thirty-minute fairytale, inspired by Svoboda's compositions. The natural world here is another character, something much larger than people, looming over us - ready to swallow us completely.
The film is a fantasia; evoking the collision of organic and inorganic, of the natural and unnatural - captured deep in the forests of south-east QLD.
“The spectacle of The Odd River is as embraceable as it is fascinating. Helen Svoboda has a talent for bringing gravity to the theatrical statement and obliterating the dividing line between “this is funny” and “this is serious.” Svoboda dismisses the idea that a cohesive vision requires either consistent expression or conventional sounds, and the bassist-composer fully manifests that perspective on The Odd River.”
— Dave Sumner (Best Jazz on Bandcamp, Sep 2023)
The Odd River weaves moments of startling beauty, childlike playfulness and dense chaos. Featuring a large ensemble of Australia’s most intriguing improvisers/performers, Helen’s quirky compositional style cycles through a rapidly changing landscape, seasoned by the eclectic instrumentation of double bass, voice, prepared piano, harmonium, zither, trombone, piccolo trumpet, woodwinds, percussion and virtuosic whistling.
