Solo

As a solo improviser Laura works primarily with clarinet, feedback, objects, voice and place.

She also writes and performs songs with voice and guitar, and occasional other elements.

Laura’s compositional practice includes writing and arranging for ensembles, as well as crafting and collating exploratory audio works.

These practices are sometimes distinct from each other, and sometimes find themselves blurring and informing each other.

Holy Trinity is Laura’s first solo CD release
Relative Pitch Records (2025)
clarinet, speakers, tapes, tins, voice, small collected objects

Holy Trinity Review

(auto-translated from French) “… With headphones on, I fall in love with these sounds; I'm immersed in the beautiful reverb of the Anglican church of Holy Trinity in York … This clarinetist's sensitivity combines with her incredible creativity. She plays for herself, she plays for us, not only the clarinet, in what appears to be a unique position ( ' Altman's exploratory practice ')  , but also manages to incorporate and arrange cassettes, various objects, and speakers, bringing us yet other sonic universes: lost birds, the whistling of warm but unsettling wind, the clatter of water droplets, noises as serene as they are disturbing... The recording is magnificent, the disc resonates, it even shines, the silences are ever-present, we are serenely bathed in a kind of light ether, as touching as it is all-encompassing. Immersive in the modern sense. Immersive and even strangely captivating.” - Review of Holy Trinity, by Valery John Klebar, STNT

Other solo work:

Live at Woollahra Gallery (2023)
Excerpts on soundcloud (2018)
Exquisite Excursions… (2011)
other compositional work

Live Review:

“Sitting between electronic processing and acoustic improvisation was Sydney clarinettist Laura Altman, who records her wistful, lightly muted sounds on small microphones placed beneath cans and other resonant objects, signal from which is then fed into cassette tapes whose playback is picked up again. Lovingly manipulating these devices with her feet while cupping her clarinet’s mouth against her thigh, this was a wonderfully corporeal work of gentle feedback, metallic buzzes and stop-start, warbling, acoustic noises.”
Review from Audible Edge Festival, Perth 2019 - Limelight Magazine