The Coiling of the Tide by Peter Knight – Stationary Travels
Peter Knight is a composer, trumpeter, and curator from Australia who describes himself as “perpetually curious”. His own musical practice as both a solo artist seeks to explore spaces between categories, genres, and cultures through an expansive approach to his instrument involving acoustic preparations, electroacoustic processing via laptop, vintage delays, tape machines, and pedals. Knight has also served as Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra (2013–23) where he commissioned over 100 works and collaborations with a diverse range of artists and led performances by the company in over a dozen countries as well as being involved in a number of collaborative and touring projects.
Due for release in November, For a Moment the Sky Knew My Name is Knight’s latest solo work and it finds him weaving a musical tapestry from “a dozen different threads” the coalesced while camping with his family on Krowathunkooloong land in the south-east corner of the country, a place where he spent the summers of his childhood. He describes the music on the album as inspired by the tactile elements of that environment – the water and the wind, the beating of insects’ wings, the sea breeze, the roll of the surf, and walks through the scrub on a path to the beach.
This place asks questions of me about belonging, about the relationship of the body to the wind. Of memory, of history, and of forgetting. Sound braces us in the now but simultaneously connects us to the past – a porous membrane between inner and outer worlds.
For a Moment the Sky Knew My Name comprises four sprawling tracks which immerse the listener in vividly painted panoramic scenes that immerse the listener in the stillness and magic of the place while Knight’s trumpet meditates and muses with soulful, evocative expression. It is music that breathes as much as it flows. As a preview of the album, the blog is pleased to premiere the video for the dramatic opening track “The Coiling of the Tide”.
I am walking up the hill behind the Yeerung with my trumpet in my backpack. Stopping to play momentarily. Trying to find a space in which I can resonate the sounds I make with those around me. The river is full from earlier rain and is threatening to break through the thin sandbank that separates its deep red pool from the gunmetal blue ocean. The heat gathers and the pulsing of the crickets intensifies…
For a Moment the Sky Knew My Name will be released on CD & digital formats by the Room40 label on November 12, 2025. The album was mastered by Lawrence English and the cover features collaborative artwork by Rosalind Atkins and Susan Purdy.
Links: Bandcamp (CD/digital) | Peter Knight
