Nick Wales & Ensemble and Shaun Parker & Company

Help Australian Composer Nick Wales create the original live album of AM I, a new collaboration with Director/Choreographer Shaun Parker. This bold new Australian work features fourteen musicians, singers and dancers and will premiere in January 2014. AM I is a stunning, new live music and dance collaboration where world music and cult-like singing collide to create a gut wrenching sound scape.

Our goal is to raise $8,000 to enable us to record, mix and produce the live album of AM I, featuring 7 hugely talented artists that will be available for purchase in early February 2014.

WHO WE ARE
Director and Choreographer Shaun Parker and Composer Nick Wales have collaborated on numerous works including the award-winning This Show is About People, Happy as Larry (with Bree Van Reyk), The Yard, Trolleys and Spill. Nick Wales’ music is a hybrid between classical forms, electronic and popular music and Shaun Parker’s choreography and direction is ‘so cutting edge it actually wanders off the edge of any single-word definition’ ( Daily Telegraph).

Nick Wales and Bree Van Reyk’s album of Shaun Parker & Company’s Happy as Larry has been hugely successful on both I-Tunes and in CD format.

In AM I, seven divinely talented and highly-skilled musicians, Nick Wales, Bree Van Reyk, Tunji Beier, Jess Green, Jason Noble, Alyx Dennison and Jessica O’Donoghue create a rich tapestry of redefined world music. South Indian and Yoruba sounds, Middle Eastern Percussion, Baglama, Ethnic Wind Instruments, Harmonium, Merimba, Rebec, Mouth Organ, Harmonica, Bass Clarinet, Electric Guitar and a mixture of voices are beautifully interwoven and expertly designed by Sound Designer Bob Scott.

The video above and images below were taken from a recent creative development week in Mittagong, where this diverse ensemble gathered to create the music that will feature in the live stage production of AM I and on the live album recording. Visit soundcloud to hear music samples from the recent creative development.

WHAT IS AM I?
AM I, the new major work by Shaun Parker & Company, is a dance and music collaboration that investigates the quintessential meaning of I. Am I my tribe? 
Am I my genetic blueprint? 
Am I a random cosmological consequence? Shaun Parker has researched the fundamental principles of Anthropology, Biology and Cosmology and offers a beautifully crafted and powerful storyboard that embodies the creation of the universe and the exploration of genetic identity; from the Big Bang Theory, to the creation of life, to the evolution of species’ to the formation of consciousness, deities, spirituality and societies.

AM I will have its world premiere at the Sydney Festival in January at the Sydney Opera House and will then travel to the Adelaide Festival in February/March, 2014. AM I features Josh Mu, Sophia Ndaba, Jessie Oshodi, Marnie Palomares, Melanie Palomares, Shantala Shivalingappa, Julian Wong, Tunji Beier, Alyx Dennison, Jess Green, Jason Noble, Jessica O’Donoghue, Bree Van Reyk & Nick Wales. For more information about the live production, including tour dates visit http://www.shaunparkercompany.com/shows/am-i/
Photos: AM I image, Michele Aboud, pictured Josh Mu
Band images, Matt Newell

Our goal is to raise $8,000 to enable us to record, mix and publish the live album of AM I, featuring 7 hugely talented artists that will be available for purchase in early February 2014.

To make our dream possible, we need the help of our friends, families, supporters and followers. We're raising much needed funds through the crowd funding website Pozible and every little bit counts. We humbly appreciate your support to help us reach our goal.

Our budget breakdown
The $8000 will go towards musician recording fees, sound engineering, sound recording and mixing expenses, labour and crew, publishing, CD manufacturing and project administration.

In return for donations, we are offering rewards depending on the amount pledged.

If we are unable to raise the funds, we will miss a vital opportunity.
We want to make this unique score available for commercial release and properly document and promote the fine work of these exceptional musicians.
Live performance is a wonderful thing, but with an album, the work can live on in the hearts and minds of music followers forever.
The challenge is that we have just 6 weeks to raise $8000. We need your help to be able to meet this challenge.