Perth Voice Interactive

IT looks like a prop from a 1950s sci-fi movie and it sounds just as weird.

I’m talking about the EWI (pronounced EE-wee) an obscure electronic wind instrument that was invented by American Nyle Steiner in the 1980s.

In lesser hands it could sound like a cheap Bontempi keyboard with flat batteries, but thankfully jazz maestro Gemma Farrell is behind the wheel in her latest album Electronic.

An accomplished jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer, she’s already got nine albums under her belt and recently turned her attention to mastering the EWI.

She dabbled with the instrument while studying her master’s at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2010, but it wasn’t until she did her Phd at WAAPA and learned how to use synths, that she really got into the novel instrument and felt comfortable improvising on it.

The EWI takes centre stage in Electronic, where she is joined by Perth musicians Sam Hadlow (trombone), Dan Garner (guitar), Ryan Daunt (drums) and Lucy Browning on bass.

The album is a fun, playful listen with lots of melodic hooks, and is free of the over earnest and trying-to-be-too-clever malaise that can inflict jazz records.

The title track Aberdeen Street kicks off with some moody John Carpenter-style synth, before 90s dance music kicks in.

Soaring over the top is the EWI and electric guitar, playing a twisting riff that sounds like the Chick Corea Elektric Band.

Farrell says the song reminds her of going clubbing in her late teens at The Deen in Perth.

At the other end of the spectrum is Abigail’s Song, which was the first track Farrell wrote after becoming a mum.

It’s a real showcase for the EWI, conjuring up lush cosmic soundscapes, and there’s shades of the middle east and cascading, bell-like passages.

There’s a contemporary air to the album with the EWI giving the fusion tracks a freshness.

Original EWIs from the 1980s are pretty hard to find these days, but thanks to the wonders of 3D printing, the instrument could be poised for a comeback.

“My instrument is a NuRAD EWI by Johan Berglund from Sweden,” Farrell says.

“Berglund is being credited as bringing the Electronic Valve Instrument back to life, as until his recent instrument designs, it was pretty hard to find one.

“His instruments and my EWI are 3D printed.”

Berglund’s updated, user-friendly take on the EWI has gone down well with musos, including famous saxophonist Michael Brecker, who used one on tour before sadly passing away in 2007.

But it’s still quite exclusive: the NuRAD is handmade to order and the base model will set you back about $2500.

When she’s not busy having fun on the EWI with her quintet, Farrell wears a lot of different jazz hats.

She writes for the band MFG with Cologne-based guitarist Nico Maas and Zurich-based keyboardist Thomas Goralski, and for the Artemis Orchestra, which promotes Australian jazz musicians of marginalised genders.

She also leads the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra’s ‘Progressions’ Pathways Program – one of three finalists for the 2022 and 2023 Australian Women in Music Awards in the humanitarian category – and was one of 16 Australian musicians nominated for the Freedman Fellowship Award in the jazz category in 2022.

But the Voice can’t help feeling she’s got a synth love affair going with the EWI and we could hear a lot more of it in the future.

“This project has basically ticked a major bucket list item for me and the EWI along with the sax of course will continue to be featured in the Gemma Farrell Quintet moving forward,” she says.

To find out more about Electronic and listen to tracks, go to gemmafarrell.bandcamp.com/album/electronic. To learn about the NuRAD EWI see berglundinstruments.com 

By STEPHEN POLLOCK