September 2016
Waterphones & Musical Sculptures
My interest in the work of several instrument builders and sculptors (the Baschet brothers, Harry Partch, Henry Bertoia, Richard Waters etc) has led me to studying welding and metal fabrication.
So far I have fabricated two waterphones and plan to make several different instruments in the future.
July 2016
NOUGHT POINT FIVE ABOVE ZERO
This month I did the sound design for La Mama theatre show Nought Point Five Above Zero No Wind directed by Laurence Strangio. This production was part of La Mama's Nordic Noir series.
"It is both enclose and yet suggest the wild, frozen, windswept winter FInland outside - aide by Christopher de Groot's subtle sound design..."
... a small and delicate piece the implications of which are far-reaching, hinting at the gap between generations, loss and regret, anger and defeat… It’s perhaps the most imaginative use of the tiny La Mama space that I’ve seen."
June 2016
SWORD & SCALE PODCAST
On the 10th of May Florida based crime podcast Sword and Scale interviewed me about my current project Lopez - an opera based on the Bjork Stalker Ricardo Lopez. Sword and Scale's 66th episode was devoted to the bizarre and shocking story.
Read the interview here
Listen to the podcast here
April 2016
RED STITCH'S "THE RIVER"
For the past month I've been working on a Red Stitch production of Jez Butterworth's play The River. I've been writing music and creating the sound design.
The Australian premiere of The River opens on Friday the 29th of April and runs until the 28th of May. Book tickets though Red Stitch.
“And the next day I went back to the river, and I took off my clothes and I dived in the water…”
On a moonless night, a nameless man whisks his new lover away to the remote family cabin he’s been coming to since a boy. He wants to go trout fishing in the darkness of the new moon and he wants her to join him. But perhaps she is not the first woman he has brought here. As the mystery deepens, intimacy and intrigue abound and the sea trout are ready to run. A bewitching story from the author of global smash hit Jerusalem.
With Ngaire Dawn Fair, Dion Mills & Christina O’Neill
Directed by John Kachoyan
Set & Costume - Chloe Greaves
Lighting - Clare Springett
Composition & Sound - Christopher de Groot
Assistant Director - Brodie Rowlands
Stage Manager - Jacinta Anderson
Assistant Stage Manager - Stella Dandolo
March 2016
GREEN ROOM AWARD WIN
On Monday the 21st of March I was awarded my first Green Room Award for Sound and Music. I was given the award for my work on the theatre show Dream Home.
Last year I released the material from Dream Home as a soundtrack album available from The Mind Is Listening.
GREEN ROOM AWARD Nomination
I was recently nominated for a Green Room Award for the music and sound design I composed for Dream Home.
Fusing the unsettling sound world of Lynchian suburbia with the body horror music of David Cronenberg films, the music for Dream Home is filled with terror and nostalgic sadness. Mixing multiple electric guitars, classical harps, reverb washed mellotrons, and field recordings of bee hives with the haunting quality of a solo bass flute, the score is a nightmare you wont want to wake up from.
The score has been released as a soundtrack album on the label The Mind Is Listening.
January 2016
SLIDE NIGHT DEBUT EP
During the month of December SLIDE NIGHT (Melbourne's only 7-piece exotica band) ran a crowd funding campaign to release their debut EP Quiet Village - Savage Sounds. The project was born out of a PBS radio spot the band was involved in throughout 2015. The bi-monthly radio spot featured SLIDE NIGHT presenting cover versions of well known pop songs down through the decades from the 2000s to the 1960s.
The campaign was a big success with the band raising over $1200 to fund the mastering and artwork for the EP.
Stay tuned as Quiet Village - Savage Sounds will be out soon!
COAL & GAS FREE VICTORIA
I recently lent my composition skills to a Friends of The Earth campaign video entitled I'm Just Like You - Coal and Gas Free Victoria. Friends of The Earth are lobbying the Victorian government to ban the abhorrent practise of coal seam gas exploration (AKA fracking).
Please show your support by signing the petition and watching the video.