Dale Cornelius – What is carried, what is left behind?

Dale Cornelius is tackling some very personal ground with What Is Carried, What Is Left Behind? a six piece modern classical album which is all about the delicate links between memory, loss, family and regeneration. Having spent a long time writing music for film and TV, he brings that cinematic sensibility to the work, creating music which is cinematic in its own right without any need for a visual narrative to underpin it. He’s worked with the Melbourne string collective Eclective Strings and the result is a combination of expressive string quartet writing, synths and found sound that is very much a music of the intimate, the haunting and the quietly immersive. The first track “In This Moment, What Matters Most?” sets the emotional tone of the album. It’s based on a question which became a very important mantra during a period when he was looking after his mother and managing his own anxiety. The point of the piece is not to build to a dramatic conclusion but simply to provide a space in which to reflect. The title track “What Is Carried, What Is Left Behind?” takes that concept further. It’s built around the sound of a metal door moving in the wind which Dale recorded outside the Concattedrale di San Salvatore in Montalcino, Italy. That very unassuming sound is the central motif of the piece and gives it a strong sense of place as well as a sense of how certain moments in time can become inextricably linked to memory. The piece is a masterclass in the use of environmental sound, strings and electronics to create a very distinctive soundscape that turns the accidental into the essential.

“Innocence” takes a different approach and is very much about vulnerability and the fragility of things that can never be quite recaptured. It sits perfectly in the sequence as a bridge between the more reflective pieces and the more personal ones, allowing the listener to just sit with the feeling of the title rather than being given any one interpretation. The emotional heart of the record is unquestionably “A Whispered Dawn (Spencer’s Lullaby)” which Cornelius wrote back in 1999 at the time of the terrifying period surrounding the premature birth of his son Spencer. Spencer was born at 27 weeks and spent three months in the NICU with the doctors at that time not at all sure whether he would survive. Cornelius wrote the piece at that time but it remained as a manuscript for 26 years. To hear it finally get recorded is to hear it in a context that goes far beyond the music itself. It is the music of a young father at the time of the very real fear of losing his child and of a man looking back at that experience 26 years later. The string quartet arrangement is absolutely the right vehicle for such a piece of personal material, one that doesn’t need to tell the story in words but can convey it through the tiniest of shifts in tone and phrasing. “Under an Impersonal Sky There Is Hope” then widens the emotional scope of the record, introducing a sense of endurance and the possibility of hope in the face of the sheer scale of the world. The title is a recognition of how life can at times feel utterly indifferent, but it’s also a recognition of the possibility of hope when you don’t have any certainty at all. “Bloom” is the track which brings the journey of renewal to a close. After all the weight of memory and all the vulnerability of the record, the title suggests a quiet blooming of something new and it’s a very gentle sense of moving forward rather than a forced happy ending.

Cornelius’ screen composition background is clearly apparent in the album’s very carefully constructed atmosphere. What Is Carried, What Is Left Behind? is less about telling a story and more about allowing the listener to find their own story in the music. His work on productions such as Mary & Max, Backtrack, Till Human Voices Wake Us and The Doctor Blake Mysteries has given him a very strong grounding in the communication of emotion through sound and that experience is obviously evident in this more personal project. The Eclective Strings add a real sense of depth and expressivity while the synths and found sounds push the music well beyond the confines of traditional chamber music. The Dolby Atmos mix is very much in keeping with this approach, giving the sounds the space to surround the listener and really immersing you in the world of each piece. The technology is never in the way and never needed to be. What makes this collection so powerful is the way the six tracks are so effectively able to connect personal memories with universal feelings: the fear of the unknown, the ache of possible loss, the tenacity of hope and the slow process of coming to terms with change. He doesn’t attempt to resolve everything or provide any neat answers. He simply creates space for you to think about what we carry with us and what we ultimately have to let go of. What Is Carried, What Is Left Behind? is a deeply considered and moving piece of work which shows how instrumental music can be used to tell a very personal story and still leave room for everyone to find their own meaning.

With strings, found sounds and haunting electronic textures Dale Cornelius turns the weight of memory into a very moving musical journey from fragility and loss to hope and renewal.”

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