Cameron Lam

"The moon that broke on the fencepost, will not hold.
Desire will not hold. Memory will not hold ...
It is an art, this evermore escaping grasp of things" 
    -The Art of Disappearing, from Aria by Sarah Holland-Batt

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Hi, I'm Cameron Lam - a composer based in Sydney, Australia. The Art of Disappearing is my latest song cycle which I've been working on for the past 18 months and I'd love your help to produce the physical album.

The Art of Disappearing is based on the compelling poetry of Queensland poet, Sarah Holland-Batt's first book, Aria, weaving together songs on the theme of grief with instrumental movements meditating on the nature of time. The album doesn’t present loss as something to solve; instead, it paints the inexorable journey from stasis, as we learn to move again.

The album was recorded by Jayson McBride at Studios 301 in Sydney in November 2018, featuring the musical talents of mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong (Halcyon) and the Geist String Quartet.

We've just completed the mastering process. and we're ready for a digital release. But I've had a few requests for a hard copy of the album from colleagues and followers of our work, so we'd like to use this as an opportunity to take pre-orders. 

50 pre-orders will cover our costs to create and press the CDs and there's heaps of rewards for being an early supporter as well.

Rewards:

The Art of Disappearing: What we're here for! A shiny physical copy of the brand new album (includes a free digital download)

Previous Albums: Previous (now out-of-print) CDs including, Kammerklang 2009, Kammerklang Vox, Symbology, and Cameron's first portrait album, Phases.

Artwork Print: High-quality 30cm print of Luke Moseley's brillant cover art for The Art of Disappearing

Aria: Sarah Holland-Batt's first book of poetry and the basis for The Art of Disappearing (first editions signed by the author available at higher tiers)

Skype calls: Can be upgraded to coffee chats (availability and good coffee required!)

Dinner: Happy to do outside of Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane if we can line it up with my travel schedule. (Will work with any dietary requirements)

Commissions: Feel free to get in touch ahead of donating if you have any questions

Any project of this size requires a small village and I've got an amazing team of people supporting me in this project.

The Team:

Composer: Cameron Lam

Poet: Sarah Holland-Batt 

Mezzo soprano: Jenny Duck-Chong 

Geist String Quartet: 

Violins: Sonia Wilson, Mia Stanton 

Viola: Hayasa Tanaka 

Cello: James Larsen 

Audio Engineer & Producer: Jayson McBride 

Cover Artist: Luke Moseley 

Choreographer & Film-maker: Louisa Poletti

Who We Are:

Cameron Lam - Composer

Cameron Lam is a freelance composer, the Artistic Director of Sydney-based hybrid-art production company, Kammerklang, and the Art Music Specialist at the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA AMCOS). After completing his Bachelor of Music Composition (Honours) at the Sydney Conservatorium, Cameron’s career has focused on collaboration, interdisciplinary practice, and entrepreneurship. 

He is proud to be an Australian Music Centre represented composer, Fine Music 102.5FM’s 2018 Stephen Kruger Scholar, and featured in US publisher NewMusicShelf’s recent ‘Anthology of New Music for Mezzo Soprano’.  

www.cameronlam.com

Sarah Holland-Batt - Poet

Sarah Holland-Batt is an award-winning poet, editor, critic and academic. Born in Southport, Australia in 1982, she grew up in Australia and the United States, and has lived in in Italy and Japan. Her first book, Aria, was the recipient of several literary prizes, including the Anne Elder Award, the Arts ACT Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the Thomas Shapcott Prize, was shortlisted in both the New South Wales and Queensland Premiers' Literary Awards, and was commended for The Age's Poetry Book of the Year. 

She has worked as an editorial consultant for publishing houses New Directions and Atria Books in New York City, and presently lives in Brisbane, where she is an Associate Professor at QUT, and the poetry editor of Island magazine. She is the editor of Black Inc.'s The Best Australian Poems 2016 and The Best Australian Poems 2017. 

www.sarahhollandbatt.com

Jenny Duck-Chong - Mezzo soprano

With a career spanning more than 25 years, Mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong has established herself as a versatile and intelligent musician with extensive experience in a broad range of classical repertoire. As a soloist, she has been acclaimed for her intense and dramatic portrayals of tragic heroines, such as Purcell’s Dido, Monteverdi’s Arianna and Britten’s Phaedra, her stylistic renderings of Baroque masterworks as well as her formidable and engaging performances of contemporary works such as Ligeti’s Sippàl, Dobbàl, Nahigeduvel, Macmillan’s Raising Sparks, Benjamin’s Upon Silence and Berio’s Folksongs. 

In recent years, Jenny has focused her attention on more intimate chamber repertoire, in particular in the field of new music. With soprano Alison Morgan, she established Halcyon in 1998, an ensemble renowned for innovative programming and exemplary contemporary vocal chamber music performance.  With Halcyon, she has premiered numerous Australian and international works by both acclaimed and emerging composers and commissioned many new works, including 21 new Australian commissions under the title Kingfisher: Songs for Halcyon to celebrate their 15th birthday.  

www.halcyon.org.au

Geist String Quartet

Violins - Sonia Wilson & Mia Stanton (guest artist)
Viola - Hayasa Tanaka
Violoncello - James Larsen 

Formed in 2015, the Geist String Quartet has quickly established itself as one of Sydney’s preeminent young ensembles. Following festival performances at Frenswegen (Germany), Orford (Canada), Turin and Verona (Italy), and Bangalow (Australia), the Geist Quartet has received praise for their interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, and 20th century works. 

As recipients of the Westheimer String Quartet Fellowship, Ernest V. Llewellyn Memorial Fund Award, and Mary Vallentine Prize, the quartet has been able to travel to ensemble development programmes across Germany, the U.S.A, Canada, and Australia. Through these programmes, the Geist Quartet has worked with artists and mentors including Eberhard Feltz, Sara Bitlloch, Monica Curro, Oliver Wille, William Coleman, and the Kuss, St Lawrence, London Haydn, and Elias quartets. 

The quartet has presented concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, and across regional New South Wales. A tour throughout central western NSW with David Miller OAM allowed the quartet to perform in a number of towns and cities as well as work with children in regional schools. 

www.geistsq.com

Jayson McBride - Audio Engineer & Producer

Jayson is a Sydney based freelance audio engineer/producer and musician who specialises in classical, jazz and other acoustic music, and is passionately committed to the creation of recordings that are sonically beautiful, technically excellent and aesthetically appropriate. His output encompasses live concerts recordings, studio recordings, CD releases, live radio broadcasts and the creation of online content. He has engineered and produced numerous recordings of Australian and international artists and recorded in all the major acoustic music venues in Sydney.

His professional experience is reinforced by his qualifications in sound recording and music performance, as well as 25 years experience as a classical musician and music educator. He holds a Master of Music Studies (Creative Sound Production) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, a Post Graduate Diploma in Performance from the Royal College of Music London, a Bachelor of Music (Performance) from the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music, and a Graduate Diploma of Education from Edith Cowan University.

Luke Moseley - Cover Artist/Graphic Designer

Luke Moseley has been Kammerklang's in-house graphic designer and creative director since 2010 and is responsible for its current logo and branding as well as artworks for Owen Salome's Resonance, Peter McNamara's The Styx, Cameron Lam's Cybermemories, and latest album, The Art of Disappearing.

He has love for storytelling in prose and film which is a strong influence in his work. His dual passions of conceptual art and branding both allow him to tell you something visually about a person, an idea or character. For Moseley, design is about telling stories and engaging in a dialogue.

https://lukemoseley.myportfolio.com/

Kammerklang - Record Label

Kammerklang (“Chamber sound”) is an Australian arts company specialising in the collaboration of music and other artforms, literally focusing on the fusion of sound and the “chamber” or space it’s performed in. Whether that space includes dancers, paintings, video projection, sculpture or circus performers depends on the project and nature of the works featured. The aim of Kammerklang is to present and promote new artistic creation that is inquisitive, detailed and accessible while still fostering exploration and communication between the arts.

www.kammerklang.com

Choreographer and long-time collaborator Louisa Poletti has created four wonderful storytelling music videos which you'll see over the course of the campaign.

Thanks to Fine Music 102.5FM's 2018 Stephen Kruger Scholarship, the album has already been recorded at Studios 301. Mixing and mastering is now completed, ready for a digital release. So the only expense we need to cover is our pressing cost for the CD print run.

We've opted for a four-panel digipak, to give us some space to talk about the pieces and showcase the artwork. The total for the pressing comes to:

CD Pressing (as quote by 3xL): $1000