David Franzke
Jonathan Marshall
David Franzke is a theatre and dance composer who has successfully convinced directors to accept his often aggressive use of sound. In addition to his beautiful, idiosyncratic scores for dance theatre such as Anna Tregloan’s Skin Flick (2001), he inserted a sometimes bombastic, torn, radio-like soundscape into Playbox Theatre’s Falling Petals (2003). As someone schooled in club DJ-ing, Franzke’s aesthetic merges creative breaks or avant-hip-hop with contemporary, hissy, musique concrète. It is no surprise that Franzke’s samples have included the works of Bernd Friedman (Beige, Freeform, Red Snapper) and the Crazy Baldheads. His work shares the funk and sci-fi humour of the former, while he is collaborating with the latter on a score for the Melbourne Workers’ Theatre’s Yanagai! Yanagai! (2003). Franzke is on the cusp of moving beyond his pre-recorded compositions for others into his own performances and releases. The recent Dancehouse Dance Card season (2003), for example, allowed him to overtly rewrite the emotional content of the solos performed in front of him by visibly mixing deep, loud, funking combinations, while Opera Somatica’s Oculus (2002) enabled him to conduct twisted tango played by a live string ensemble. More gentle musical offerings include his collaboration with Jeremy Downer as Tet et Hok, On the Fly (self-produced, 2002), while his exquisite ghosting of the transitions within electronic space is found on the Strewth! compilation (Synaesthesia, 2002). If Franzke continues to build on such independent works as his live appearance within 45 Downstairs’ Swank series (2003), he is sure to continue to challenge and amuse.
RealTime issue #57 Oct-Nov 2003 pg. 6
