Anthony Pateras
Anthony Peter Pateras is an Australian-born composer, pianist and electronic musician. At the APRA Music Awards' Art Music Awards, he has been nominated three times: 2011 for Performance of the Year for his composition, Refractions, performed by Clocked Out and Speak Percussion; 2012 for Work of the Year – Instrumental for Flesh and Ghost performed by Speak Percussion; and 2015 for Performance of the Year for Beauty Will Be Amnesiac or Will not Be at All performed by Synergy Percussion.
Career
Anthony Peter Pateras was born in 1979 and grew up in Melbourne. As an undergraduate he scored numerous theatrical productions at La Mama, The Carlton Courthouse and LaTrobe Student Theatre. He was a sound composer for a play, Carboni, written by John Romeril and performed in June 1999 at the Carlton Courthouse. For William 37 at La Mama, Pateras worked with Jeremy Collings on the soundscape, which Kate Herbert of The Herald Sun reviewed, " has some appropriate and interesting moments but is often too loud, intrusive and poorly placed."From 2001 till 2006 he scored numerous short films, two were accepted in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival: Martin Four and Footnote. He curated the Articulating Space concert series from 2001, which later transformed into the Melbourne International Biennale of Exploratory Music in 2008. In May 2003 he collaborated with Australian electro-acoustic improviser and composer, Robin Fox, to release the duo album, Coagulate, which AllMusic's François Couture described, " is blatantly maximalist: loud, occasionally harsh, very in-your-face and occasionally quite entertaining."
Pateras' solo album, Mutant Theatre, was rated by AllMusic's staff writer as three-and-a-half stars out-of five. For the recording he composed the tracks, provided piano, prepared piano and vocals, and conducted the session musicians as well as co-producing the work. Pateras and Fox' second collaborative album, Flux Compendium, had Couture observe, "the two electronicians toned down the harsh noise in favor of a more discreet – and intriguing – sound palette. It seems these two can build impromptu compositions out of any type of sound: breath, belches, coins, laughs, doors, and yes, even pure electronic tones." Also in that year, Gauticle, an album was released by Pateras joined by Sean Baxter on drums and David Brown on guitar, which had been recorded two years earlier. Couture noticed, " play their instruments in unorthodox ways, looking for quiet, delicate sounds. Pateras spends most of his time inside the piano, hitting, scraping, and rubbing its strings."
Chromatophore, his next solo album, was rated at three stars out-of five, with Couture explaining, "there is no real theme, genre, form, or instrumentation running through the six works... except creativity and broad palette." He provided computers, electronics, prepared piano, synthesiser and vocals whilst also working as conductor and producer. His third collaboration with Fox, End of Daze, followed in January of the next year, which Couture felt was, "chock-full of exciting experimental music, and nicely sequenced into a fun yet challenging listen... Samples and glitches are digitally treated and combined on the fly to produce fast-paced pieces that stand somewhere between sound collage and digital noise music."
Pateras composed and conducted a performance, Percussion Portrait, which brought together two groups: Speak Percussion from Melbourne and Clocked Out from Brisbane. Steven Hodgson of Australian Music Centre reviewed the event and described the last part, Refractions, " highly sectionalised, progressing from texture to texture with a continued sense that pitch and rhythmic materials have been selected to serve the instrumental combination in use at any particular time. The work features a variety of non-conventional percussive sounds, amongst them the crinkling of lolly wrappers, the rattling of keys, and rice poured onto the skins of bass and timpani drums." At the APRA Music Awards of 2011 his composition, Refractions, was nominated for Art Music Award for Performance of the Year as delivered by Clocked Out and Speak Percussion.
In March 2012 he performed Ontetradecagon – his interpretation of jazz musician, Miles Davis' work – at the Adelaide Festival, with a 14-piece ensemble. The ensemble performed it live-in-the-studio for Andrew Ford's The Music Show on Radio National. At the APRA Music Awards of 2012 he was nominated for Art Music Award for Work of the Year – Instrumental for Flesh and Ghost, which was performed by Speak Percussion in September 2011. The judging panel described Flesh and Ghost, as "a wonderfully epic piece where the composer utilises the 12-player percussion ensemble beautifully, creating a one sound world and a lovely sense of texture. It has a sense of space with spectrums of sound." At the APRA Music Awards of 2015 he was nominated for Art Music Award: Performance of the Year for Beauty Will Be Amnesiac or Will not Be at All, which was performed by Synergy Percussion. The work was commissioned by Sydney-based ensemble, Synergy Percussion, for their 40th anniversary celebration.
Pateras collaborated with Mike Patton to establish their tētēma project: they released an album, Geocidal, late in 2014. Danny Baraz of Janky Smooth felt it was, "nothing short of an abstract, conceptual masterpiece. There are no hooks here. This will receive no radio play – except, possibly from the least commercial, college radio stations." In 2016 the BBC Symphony Orchestra performed Pateras' composition, Immediata, under Brett Dean with Thomas Gould as soloist and Pateras on revox. The following year the tētēma project headlined the MONA FOMA festival. The second album by the group, Necroscape, appeared in April 2020, with Pop Matters Justin Vellucci declaring, " is not a record of hits; instead, it unfolds in Bizarro chapters as a catalog of misses... flesh out some interesting sonic touches and have a grasp on ambiance, sure. But, sadly, the compliments have to end there." While the staff writer from Smells Like Infinite Sadness observed, " very much a challenging listen... but its unique, crazy quilt mix of musical components should be just as engaging for any adventurous listener."
Discography
| Title | Album details |
| Coagulate |
|
| Mutant Theatre | |
| Flux Compendium | |
| Gauticle | |
| Chasms | |
| Chromatophore | |
| End of Daze | |
| Errors of the Human Body OST | |
| Collected Works 2002–2012 | |
| Delirioso | |
| Entertainment = Control | |
| Blood Stretched Out |