Since that time Tony and I have been developing a repertoire of music I have been playing, studying, and composing over the last five years. His musicianship and marvellous collection of instruments suit the repertoire perfectly. With some pieces he plays the North Indian tabla, on others the Udu - a Nigerian style clay pot drum made in Australia by Hildegard Anstice. Hildegard had a collection of her instruments at the previous Armidale Festival in 2000, Call of the Four Winds. Tony borrowed an udu to perform at one of the concerts. After the concert Hildegarde spoke with him, saying she loved the way that he played, and then very generously gave it to him. Gifted instruments like this have a very special place in a musician's heart, and it is wonderful to perform pieces with Tony on this marvellous instrument. Tony has developed his own style of playing his udu based on the techniques of the South Indian clay pot drum, the ghatam. He also plays the tombak, an Iranian goblet shaped drum, an instrument difficult to find due to Iran's repressive laws against music. It is only subject to approval from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that instrument makers in Iran are allowed to have workshops and sell their instruments. Each instrument that is sold needs an official government seal to show that it is legally authorised. Exportation of musical instruments is a difficult process.

Tony keeps adding different instruments to our developing repertoire, like frame drums that really suit our medieval repertoire and some of the Turkish pieces, and often wears a South American rattle called a llama. The llama is made of llama's toenails gathered together. Tony wears it on his leg and plays the main beats on it while playing his other instruments. You can hear it and the udu in Absence, where it really helps to define the main pulse in his dazzling displays of rhythmic play on the udu and the compositions shifting sense of melodic pulse. Then there was another piece we performed to a group of school children where he played a large plastic water bottle from a water dispenser and I joined him with a small plastic yellow and red whistle that had flown out of a Christmas cracker onto Tony's lap fifteen years ago.

Some of the pieces we play together are by Ross Daly, or are pieces I learnt from him and lyra player Kelly Thomas during my 18 month stay performing and studying with them in Greece. I loved this music so much that I continue to play a lot of it, constantly shifting my approach to the repertoire and seeing more and more in it. Tony and I also play some classical Persian music together. My interest in this music is inspired by my short time studying with master ney player Hossein Omoumi in Paris in 2002. The Persian ney (lit. in Farsi 'reed') is an end blown reed flute traditionally made from the Arundo donax plant. Hossein Omoumi is perhaps one of the best known living ney players, and he was a student of Master Hassan Kassa.. More recently I spent some time in Melbourne learning more about this music with santur player Qmars Piraglu. The santur is a stringed dulcimer-type instrument struck with two small wooden hammers. It has a range of over three octaves. For eight years Qmars was a student of the famous santur master Faramarz Payvar in Tehran, Iran and he taught me pieces composed by him. It was a challenge playing pieces written so idiosyncratically for the santur, but that they worked so well, and are such a pleasure to play, speaks for the beauty and eloquence of the compositions by the master whose compositions, revolutionary technique and incredible musicianship have been the reason his instrument has gained such popularity in Iran today.