MONOlive by Eugene Carchesio

At the end of 2021, after an absence of many months, I had the chance to curate a gathering as part of the MONO series at the IMA. It was a tenuous moment. Queensland, the state in which I live here in Australia was just opening its borders after an 18+ month stretch of Covid-Zero. It was a transitional time, equal parts aspirational and unsteady, all at once.

As part of the program, I invited Eugene Carchesio to develop a special work to present as part of the series. Carchesio’s work across sound and image is one that seems unbounded and free. He is never settled, though equally never undirected. Each work, like the one that came before it and the one that follows carve out a special place in the world's they inhabit. They each create their own relation in space and time, and in doing so offer a unique opportunity for approaching the multifarious universe that Eugene Carchesio continues to grow.

His musical works are divergent - taking in solo works for piano, for guitar and also for electronics. This work falls into the later orbit. A series of minimalist patterns that bloom within the cavernous spaces of the IMA’s galleries. These pieces breath in and out with the architecture of the gallery. They seek to test its reflections and hover within its echoing walls.

MONOlive is the first live recording of Eugene’s work that has been made available and what a pleasure it is to share it with you.

Carchesio's sound worlds are uncomplicated and ultimately minimal, but in their simple orbiting structures comes a deepness that's truly inexplicable. This is minimalism without boundaries.