Anne Norman – shakuhachi and poetry Emily Sheppard – violin Anya Tait – violin "Beneath the Surface" contains recordings made in the beautiful resonance of Tunnel Number Five, under Darwin. It features improvisations during live performance and traditional bamboo flute meditations, original compositions and improvisations. Spontaneous outpourings of music are fleeting, so we are most grateful to location recordist David Matthews for his presence in the tunnel with us. This music sounds great through stereo speakers but AWESOME through headphones to get the subtle nuances of being inside the tunnel. The movement of players from left to right; the reflections of sound from the ends of the tunnel... and in some piece you can even hear the vibrations surging past along the metal cladding of the tunnel. So much detail is revealed when listening on headphones. Dave sat with microphones in a hat above his ears, his right ear facing the tunnel end just 22m from his seat, while his left ear faced the entrance 150m away. Both ends have open doorways cut through only part of the concrete wall, so the reflections are fabulous. In the gigs, audience members sat in a long line on either side of Dave, and the performers wandered freely along the full 172m of the tunnel. Each listener chose the placement of their own seat, ensuring a completely unique aural experience: a very exciting feature of this venue. So, don your headphones, and join us on a journey beneath the surface. Anne Norman So what is this Tunnel under Darwin??? Two months after attacking Pearl Harbour, the very same Japanese planes and pilots dropped an even greater number of bombs on Darwin. The extent of casualties from this bombing raid was hidden from Australia's southern states, for fear it may cause panic. Darwin came under air attack 59 times in 1942 and 1943. The many hundreds of deaths were not made public until 50 years after the war. The construction of tunnels began following these first catastrophic air raids that destroyed fuel storage tanks, allied ships and airfields. Designed as subterranean tanks to safely store oil from future attack, many problems were encountered in making the tunnels leak proof… even the addition of iron cladding did not solve the problems. The construction budget blew out and the war ended before the tunnels were capable of actually storing oil. You might like to read Anne's blog on the making of the CD: https://annenorman.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/beneath-the-surface/