Past Music SoundOut Festival 2023

This is the 14th year of the annual SoundOut festival, and in 2023 we will bring to you the continuation of this incredible explorative sound event. This is the Improvisational and Experimental Music festival, that will uplift tired ears and eyes, explore the unknown, see within the fabric of sound, unravel the threads of normative musical praxis, and question sonic hegemonies. The artists will combine, mix, cross-fertilize, and move sound mountains to inspire inquiring ears and eyes.

SoundOut 2023 sees the extraordinary Artists: the legendary Jon Rose (violin); the amazing Hermione Johnson (piano); sublime Peter Knight (trumpet/revox tape player) Chloe Sobek (violine); Mark Cauvin (double Bass); Joe Talia (drums); Alexandra Spence (tape manipulations/objects); Dale Gorfinkel (vibraphone); Jasmin Wing-Lin Leung (Erhu); MP Hopkins (electronics); Peter Farrar (saxophone); Gemma Horbury (trumpet); Dave Brown (guitar); Carmen Chan Schoenborn (piano /percussion); Gail Priest (electronics); Nikki Heywood (vocals/text), Clinton Green (electronics); Elizabeth Jigalin (vibraphone/accordion); Jamie Gifford (Bandenon); Brian McNamara (invented electronics instr.); Jamie Lambert (guitar); Rhys Butler (alto sax); Richard Johnson (wind instr.); Rory Villegas (trumpet) + we are hoping for the avant-garde cellist Khabat Abas from Iraq/Sweden to make it to the festival.

Jon Rose and Peter Knight (former director of the Australian Art Orchestra) will be running seperate Workshops/talks during the festival: Jon Rose will give a talk on experimental instrument making followed by workshop on the 27th from 1-4pm; Peter Knight will give a improvisation workshop on the 28th from 9am -12 @Drill Hall Gallery for those interested for a minor fee of $15 per workshop is set. Tickets here:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/soundout-workshops-tickets-490829031847

The 2023 group of Artists are all involved in a dialogue that is essential to the unfolding of new music structures and what it means to be human in the 21st Century. Come, see and hear the new music evolve.

17+hrs of music: 4 sessions

S1. Friday 27th 7pm -11:30pm

S2. Saturday 28th 1pm – 5pm

S3. Saturday 28th 7pm -11:30pm

S4. Sunday 29th 1pm – 5pm

We would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I work, live, learn and perform, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri People. May we continue to celebrate and commend the rich depth of knowledge from the oldest continuing cultures in the world.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the Drill Hall Gallery staff that are super supportive of all things SoundOut. You are all truely amazing.

Also to our grant benefactors thank your for now … more on this in January

Program:

Session 1: Fri. 27 January 7pm – 11:30

7pm

Noisefloor ensemble:

Jamie Gifford: bandenon

Jamie Lambert: guitar

Rhys Butler: alto sax

Richard Johnson: wind instruments

Rory Villegas: trumpet

Tom Fell: saxophones

7:45

Whistle-biter:

Dave Brown: Electric Guitar

Hermione Johnson: piano

8:30

Khabat Abas: cello

Jon Rose: violin

Mark Cauvin: double bass

Nikki Heywood: voice/txt/performance artist

9:15

Peter Knight: Solo, trumpet/revox/electronics

10:00

Carmen Chan Schoenborn: vibraphone, piano, organ

Gemma Horbury: Trumpeter,

Joe Talia: drums

Samuel Pankhusrt: double bass

10:45 +

Clinton Green: electronics

Dale Gorfinkel: invented instruments

Brian McNamara: invented electronic instruments

Peter Farrar: electronic / objects / saxophone

Session 2: Sat. 28 January 1pm – 5

1pm

Alexandra Spence: objects/electronic/clarinet

MP Hopkins: electronic

1:40

Chloe Sobek: Violine

Elizabeth Jigalin: accordion

Peter Farrar: Electronics/ objects / saxophone

2:20

Jon Rose: violin….. to curate this set

3:00

Carmen Chan Schoenborn: vibraphone, piano, organ

Gail Priest: electronics

Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung: Erhu

3:40

Dale Gorfinkel: invented instruments

Jamie Gifford: Bandoneon

Rhys Butler: Alto sax

Samuel Pankhusrt: double bass

4: 20

Clinton Green: electronics

Gemma Horbury: Trumpet

Rory Villiges: trumpet

Tom Fell: saxophones,

Session 3: Sat. 18 June 7pm – 11:30

7pm

Khabat Abas: Solo cello

7:45

Alexandra Spence: objects/electronic/clarinet

Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung: Erhu

Mark Cauvin: double bassist

Peter Knight: composer/trumpet

Richard Johnson: wind instruments

8:30

Brian McNamara: invented electronic instruments

Chloe Sobek: Violine

Dave Brown: Guitar

Gemma Horbury: Trumpet

Joe Talia: drums

Jon Rose: violin,

9:15

Hermione Johnson: Solo piano

10:00

Carmen Chan Schoenborn: vibraphone, piano, organ

Dale Gorfinkel: invented instruments

Elizabeth Jigalin: accordion

MP Hopkins: electronic,

Peter Knight: composer/trumpeter/sound artist

10: 45

Gail Priest: electronics

Jamie Lambert: guitar and preparations

Peter Farrar: electronics/ objects / saxophone

Samuel Pankhusrt: double bass

Session 4: Sun. 29 January 1pm – 5

1pm:

SoundOut Brass /wind ensemble

Dale Gorfinkel: invented instruments

Peter Farrar: objects / saxophone

Peter Knight: trumpet

Rhys Butler: alto sax

Richard Johnson: wind instrument

Rory Villiges: trumpet

Tom Fell: saxophones

1:40

Gail Priest: solo electronics

2:20

Alexandra Spence: objects/electronic/clarinet

Chloe Sobek: Violine

Hermione Johnson: piano

Khabat Abas: cello

Jamie Gifford: Bandenon,

Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung: Erhu

3:00

Dave Brown: Electric Guitar

Jamie Gifford: Bandenon,

Joe Talia: drums

Mark Cauvin: double bassist

Nikki Heywood: voice/txt/performance artist

3:40

Clinton Green: electronics

Elizabeth Jigalin: accordion

Jamie Lambert: guitar and preparation

MP Hopkins: electronic

4:20

SoundOut Collective (all remaining artists)

Artist List (artist bios below)

Alexandra Spence: objects/electronic/clarinet, Sydney

Brian McNamara: invented electronic instruments, Canberra

Carmen Chan Schoenborn: cello, piano, organ, Melbourne

Chloe Sobek: Violine , Melbourne

Clinton Green: electronics, Melbourne

Dale Gorfinkel: invented instruments, Melbourne

Dave Brown: Guitar Melbourne

Elizabeth Jigalin: accordion, Sydney

Gail Priest: electronics, sound art, Sydney

Gemma Horbury: Trumpeter, Melbourne

Hermione Johnson: pianist, Aotearoa NZ

Jamie Gifford: Bandoneon, Canberra

Jamie Lambert: guitar and preparations: Canberra

Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung: Erhu Melbourne

Joe Talia: drums, Melbourne

Jon Rose: violin, Alice Springs NT

Khabat Abas: cello, Iraq/Sweden

Mark Cauvin: double bassist, Sydney

MP Hopkins: electronic, Sydney

Nikki Heywood: voice/txt/performance artist, Sydney

Peter Farrar: objects / saxophone, Sydney

Peter Knight: composer/trumpeter/sound artist, Melbourne

Rhys Butler: saxophonist, Canberra

Richard Johnson: wind multi-instrumentalist + , Canberra

Rory Villiges: trumpet, Canberra

Samuel Pankhusrt: double bass, Brisbane

Tom Fell: saxophones, Canberra

Artist Bios

Alexandra Spence: objects/electronic/clarinet, Sydney

Alexandra Spence is a sound artist and musician living on unceded Wangal land in Sydney, Australia. Through her practice Alex attempts to reimagine the intricate relationships between the listener, the object, and the surrounding environment as a kind of communion or conversation. Her aesthetic favours field recordings, analogue technologies and object interventions (she holds the belief that electricity might actually be magic). Alex has performed and presented work worldwide, including the Vancouver Art Gallery; Late Junction on BBC Radio 3; SoundCamp Festival, London; Ausland, Berlin; Musée Guimet, Paris; Radiophrenia, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Contemporary Musiking Hong Kong’s Sound Forms Festival, HK; Ftarri, Tokyo; Metro Arts Gallery, Brisbane; Museum of Contemporary Art ARTBAR, Firstdraft Gallery, Soft Centre, and Liveworks Festival with Liquid Architecture in Sydney. Alex completed a Master of Fine Arts in sound installation at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, CA. In 2018, she resided briefly in the UK to undertake a mentorship with David Toop. In 2019, she resided at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, as one of the Asialink Arts Creative Exchange recipients. She has released music with Room40, Longform Editions, More Mars and Canti Magnetici, receiving acclaim in The Wire Magazine, The Quietus, Bandcamp Best of Experimental Music, and featured in a BBC4 radio series by Timothy Morton.

https://alexandraspence.net/about

Brian McNamara: invented electronic instruments, Canberra

Brian is an experimental instrument builder and sound sculpture artist based in Canberra, Australia. He mixes his passions for music, electronics and sculpture into unique objects that should need no explanation to play or experience but convey a deeper meaning in the context of their surroundings. Brian builds and performs with a range of experimental instruments, with a focus on both autonomous soundart sculptures and interactive installation instruments that require the engagement of multiple people or unusual kinetic movements to be played. His instruments include computer programmed elements, percussion, found sounds from used electronics and purpose designed oscillators. A key feature of his work is audience movement and participation. Art functions best when the art space is inclusive of the public so through his exploration of experimental sounds he uses engagement with the audience as a medium to convey ideas. These explorations include the link between the environment and technology, our own movement around the planet with movement of those fleeing war torn areas and the link between our own minds and those we try to create in machines. https://www.facebook.com/cupandbow/

Carmen Chan Schoenborn: cello, piano, organ, Melbourne

Carmen Chan Schoenborn is a musician and artist. She has a Master of Music from the University of Melbourne, having studied percussion performance with Tim Hook, and piano with Michael Kieran Harvey. She also studied at Musikhögskolan i Piteå, Sweden, with Gary Verkade and Jan Ferm. As graphic scores composer, her creative project ‘Do You See What I Hear?’ (2009–) with graphic scores, art and interpretations has invited interpreters ranging from professional musicians to non-musicians to become engaged. The project has been featured at La Mama Musica, Shepparton Art Museum, the International Alliance of Women’s Music blog, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Tilde New Music Festival, Festival of Slow Music, Waranga Film Festival, the community of Surrey Hills and with the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. Carmen was also invited to present at the Notations21 European tour and symposium in Utrecht, the Netherlands in 2012. Her composition ‘No Clouds’ was included in the Melbourne Now exhibition (2013–14) at the National Gallery of Victoria. A site-specific work was created and performed at Town Hall Gallery in 2015. In 2017, she received a grant from the Earle Brown Music Foundation to present a tribute concert to Earle Brown and Morton Feldman, featuring their graphic scores, new dance choreographed by Tony Yap, and a new work in their honour by Warren Burt and herself. Carmen has also been the recipient of several grants and scholarships from organisations and institutions, including the Ian Potter Foundation, the University of Melbourne and the Rotary Club of Melbourne. In 2018, Carmen was selected as Victorian representative for The Summers Night Project by Tura New Music, mentored by Cat Hope. Performances of her new composition ‘Our Current State of Progress’, which quotes the Global Gender Gap Report 2017, were held in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne. Carmen has performed in Adam Simmons Creative Music Ensemble as part of the Usefulness of Art series at fortyfivedownstairs and Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues. She has also performed with Ren Walters’ multidisciplinary THIS ensemble, Domenico de Clario and was composer and musician for Efterpi Soropos’ project ‘Oompah!’ for babies at ArtPlay. In 2018, she was on the advisory assessment panel for Creative Victoria.

https://joltarts.org/artists/carmen-chan-schoenborn

Chloe Sobek: Violine, Melbourne

Chloë Sobek is a composer-performer and electroacoustic experimental sound artist. Her practice is currently centred on the development of post-anthropocentric sonic performance that encompasses a diversity of enquiry from acoustemology through to noise music. She is invested in creative practice as a means to deconstruct and reshape the way we conceptualise our collective futures. Chloë’s practice is built around the Renaissance precursor to the double bass, the violone. Her creative process couples field-recordings and musique concrète sensibilities such as audio-montage and electronic processing, with a handling of sound as a senate object, unlinked and undefined by its source. Chloë has won the Monash Jazz and Improvisation postgraduate award (2021), the 2021 Allan Zavod Performers’ Award (2nd Place), the Marten Bequest Scholarship (2020) and the RMIT Vice Chancellor’s Award (2019). Chloë has also been awarded funding from the City of Melbourne, the Australia Council of the Arts, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and was a scholarship student at the Australian National Academy of Music. Recent composition and performance highlights include, the performance of work ‘Apotropaic’ at TENOR2022, with the support of the Australia Council of the Arts, the commission to write, record and perform a work for Outlier (Lizzy Welsh and Chloë Sobek) and Tilman Robinson at Melbourne Recital Centre and The Theatre Royal (2021). With the support of the Marten Bequest, the commission to compose and perform a contemporary work for violone (2020) and with the support of the Castlemaine State Festival, the commission to compose and perform an animated score for Outlier (2019). Chloe is a current PhD candidate at Monash University.

https://www.chloesobek.com/

Clinton Green: electronics, Melbourne

Clinton Green makes something akin to music. He has been active in Australian experimental music since the 1990s as a recording and performing artist, curator, facilitator, writer and researcher. He has worked with unconventional approaches to guitars, turntables and found objects as tools for new forms of musical expression. He also works with dancers, theatre and performance artists in improvised collaborative situations, and has developed a performance practice incorporating projections. Clinton runs the Shame File Music label and writes on/researches historical and contemporary aspects of Australian experimental music. He has completed artist residencies in Taiwan (2015) and Cradle Mountain, Tasmania (2017), and has performed/exhibited in Canada, Germany, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, and throughout Australia. His current interests and pursuits include: interdisciplinary site specific performance; turntable-based sound sculpture; multi-disciplinary group improvisation.

https://clintongreenmusic.com/

Dale Gorfinkel: invented instruments, Melbourne

Dale Gorfinkel is a musician, artist and facilitator whose stylefree improvisational approach informs his multi-instrumental performances, instrument-building, kinetic sound installations, videos and animations. Dale’s work aims to reflect an awareness of the dynamic nature of culture and the value of listening as a mode of knowing people and places. He is interested in finding fresh ways of presenting and making music, bringing creative communities together and shifting perceived boundaries of scenes and artforms. Dale has presented installations and performances throughout Australia and internationally. Amongst numerous creative collaborations, his current projects include Prophets, Sounds Like Movement, Snacks, and Chikchika.

dalegorfinkel.com

Dave Brown: Guitar Melbourne

Dave has been involved in the Melbourne avant-garde, art scene since the mid-seventies with such groups as “False Start”, “Signals” and “Dumb and the Ugly”. The first two of these groups began from associations made around the time he was completing a diploma of fine arts in the mid-1970s. Subsequent projects include punk jazz band “bucketrider”, “lazy” an improvising duo with percussionist Sean Baxter, improv/sound art group “Western Grey” with Baxter and Philip Samartzis, psychedelic electronic group “Terminal Hz” with KK Null from Japan, prepared improvisational group “Pateras/Baxter/Brown, electric free jazz group “Embers”, the duo “culture of un” with Sydney pianist Chris Abrahams, the prepared instrument duo “Hakea” with saxophonist Rosalind Hall, the duo “Helium Clench” with Melbourne guitarist and microtonal instrument builder Tim Catlin as well as more occasional groups. David Brown has performed regularly at the What Is Music? Festival since 1996, the Melbourne and Wangaratta Jazz festivals, the Articulating Space festival, the Nownow Festival in Sydney, Liquid Architecture Festival plus featured performances at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 2002, the Podewil Centre in Berlin in 2003 and extensive tours of numerous European cities with Pateras/Baxter/Brown in October 2004, November 2006 and May 2007. In October/November 2008 Pateras/Baxter/Brown again toured Europe, this time performances in France and Switzerland were undertaken with their compatriots ‘The Necks.’ In February 2011 Terminal Hz toured Europe. In 2005, 2006 and 2008 respectively Brown made contributions to the soundtracks of the motion pictures ‘Wolf Creek’, ‘Rogue’ and ‘The Square’ composed by Franc Tetaz. Brown has also contributed performances and live accompaniment to the soundtrack ‘Au Revalateur’, composed by Philip Brophy.

http://www.candlesnuffer.org/

Elizabeth Jigalin: accordion, Sydney

Elizabeth is performer/composer. Elizabeth loves to compose curious sandpits of sound and work with others to collage elements of music, play, theatre and the everyday. Elizabeth collaborates with artists across disciplines, audiences, participants and communities to create unexpected encounters of music. In her music, Elizabeth is often drawn to miniature forms, the colour red, objects, lists, playfulness, ears, instrument building, zine making, DIY electronics, new media, ephemera and creating music ‘outside the usual order of things’. Elizabeth’s music has been performed on the National Carillon in Canberra, premiered at festivals around the world and explored in places like the bush, recital halls, pedestrian bridges, parks and homes. Elizabeth is the founder of creative music collective the music box project who were awarded Excellence for Experimental Music at the 2020 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards for shallow listening – a project premiered at BIFEM that featured her music theatre work prelude & pickle (2019). In 2022, Elizabeth was a finalist in the APRA Professional Development Awards. At present, she is an Ars Musica scholar and Composer in Residence for Voices of Women where she has composed and performed original music for the screen and live performances. In 2022, Elizabeth is an Artist in Residence at the Bondi Pavilion, as part of the inaugural Housewarming program. Awards include 1st Prize Centenary of Canberra Composition Competition and Unbound Flute Festival Competition. https://www.elizabethjigalin.net/

Gail Priest: electronics, sound art, Sydney

Gail Priest is a sound artist based on Darug and Gundungurra Land (Blue Mountains). She has a multifaceted practice that explores the aural realm sensorially, materially and conceptually. Her work manifests as semi-improvised performance, composition, installation, curation and textual responses. She employs voice, field recording and machine mutterings to enter a liminal zone between abstraction and figuration. The result is a super-saturated ambient baroque mixing ethereal vocals and broken melodies with the occasional nasty noise.

http://www.gailpriest.net http://gailpriest.bandcamp.com

Gemma Horbury: Trumpeter, Melbourne

Gemma is an artist, performer and community collaborator working across sound, music, video and installation. She curates Melbourne’s iconic exploratory music and sound night La Mama Musica, and performs regularly with ensembles including Lo-res and the JazzLab Orcheztra. In 2019, her group ThunderGrass won the Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival Recording Prize. Gem uses art to imagine radical futures: new ways to live together in the time of climate emergency. From the site-specific aeonium installation “grow” (Thornbury Station), to the animation “Things With Holes In” (SeenSound), and “Ritual for Plastic and Everlastings” (with Emily Bennett at Make it Up Club), Gemma plays with notions of ugly/beautiful, dead/alive, and trash/treasure to draw attention to the dissociative state humanity so readily accepts. #ListenForTheFuture, begun during Melbourne’s second lockdown in 2020, invites people to share their vision for tomorrow through short audio-visual artworks. Listening is also at the heart of her recent work creating rituals for connection, slowing down and exploring interspecies relationships. An inspiring musical director, Gemma is a recipient of the Generations in Jazz Yamaha Jazz Spirit Award (2011), and initiated the Darebin Music Feast / Orkeztra Glasso Bashalde Composition Competition, a statewide award for Victorian composers. Gemma is known for her unique sound and on-stage presence whether playing jazz, classical, world music, contemporary or experimental styles. Whilst still an undergraduate at WAAPA, she was awarded a scholarship to study historic brass performance in the UK, and completed a course in Baroque trumpet making at Edinburgh University. Gemma devised a prototype “Electric Video Trumpet” in 2008, enabling control of audiovisual software via modified games controllers attached to an ordinary trumpet.

Hermione Johnson: pianist, Aotearoa NZ

Hermione Johnson is a pianist and composer from Aotearoa New Zealand. She is best known as an improviser, and with this she has been a significant force in the New Zealand experimental music scene. Her playing centres largely on extended and prepared piano techniques, focusing on the timbral qualities of the instrument, and drawing out a range of voices with contrasting patterns and phrases in different registers. She performs locally with NZ Jazz giants such as Chris O’Connor, Roger Manins and Reuben Derrick. She featured regularly in Dunedin’s Lines of Flight Festival, winning best Performance at the Dunedin Fringe Festival together with Jeff Henderson in 2013. She has also appeared in Wellington’s Pyramid Power Festival, played the NoWhere Festival in Auckland, the Nownow in Sydney, and the SoundOut in Canberra. Internationally she has played with Magda Mayas, Roger Turner, Tony Buck and Peter Brotzmann. Her solo set at the Wels Music Unlimited Festival 2019 (Austria) received critical acclaim with Israeli reviewer Eyal Hareuveni describing it as a magnificent set that kept introducing surprising, magical timbres of the piano and left many attentive listeners wishing to see more and more of Johnson. Her solo album ‘Tremble’ was released in 2020 under the New York imprint Relative Pitch Records and was named one of the year’s ‘best solo recordings’ by New York City Jazz Record.

https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tremble

Jamie Gifford: Bandoneon, Canberra

Jamie has been involved in community orchestras and choirs in Australia and Spain from an early age. His passionate interest in Argentine tango dance and music lead to the bandoneón, the iconic instrument of Argentine tango, and now he enjoys researching, playing and slowly unravelling the Bandonen’s mysteries as a sound source in free improvisation, an orchestral instrument, and a solo instrument. He recently started playing in the newly formed Canberra based free improvisation ensemble Noise Floor along side of Rhys Butler, Richard Johnson and Rory Villiegas.

Jamie Lambert: Guitar, Canberra

Jamie is a guitarist who has recently moved from Sydney. Jamie became involved in free improvisation through the Mt Ainslie Music Club, a free improvisation group based in Canberra, and has since performed as part of the Noise Floor ensemble. Jamie employs a non-idiomatical style of playing and seeks to explore the timbral possibilities of the electric guitar through the use of prepared guitar and effects.

Jasmin Wing-Lin Leung: Erhu [2 string chinese fiddle], Melbourne

Jasmin’s work is made within concert and installation settings, creating compositions, performances and installations that investigate the possibilities inside intimate sonic and social spaces. Jasmin is interested in ideas of listening, resonance, vibration, tuning, environment, sharing and communication. She also plays the Erhu (a two-stringed Chinese fiddle) and has developed an extended practice for this instrument. Leung is an active member of the new/experimental/improvised music scene in AustJon Rose’s Corrugations events ralia. She has shared her work in Europe, China and North America.

https://jasminleung.net/

Joe Talia: drums, Melbourne

Joe is an improviser and composer who works with percussion, tape and electronics. Focussing on the use of Revox tape machine and analogue synthesizers in combination with instruments and field recordings, Talia’s electronic works patiently build up sparkling, detail-rich sound worlds of gliding tones, skittering percussion and burbling location atmospherics. In live situations, Talia often uses tape and effects to process and warp his own and others’ playing into uncanny chains of echoes and spectral smears of sound. A virtuoso drummer, as a percussionist Talia emerges from the traditions of jazz and free improvisation and has developed a unique personal language of shifting accents, subtle virtuosity and discreet extended technique that he welds equally ably in jazz, rock, new music and improvisational contexts. Like his electronic works, his drumming often demonstrates a keen attention to long-form structures, dynamic development and group interactions. An important member of Tokyo’s vibrant improvised music scene and internationally active as a performer, Talia performs and records regularly with Oren Ambarchi, Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O’Rourke, James Rushford and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto. In addition to these regular collaborations, he has also been involved in projects with Keiji Haino, Chris Abrahams, Tetuzi Akiyama, Akira Sakata, John Duncan, Richard Pinhas and many others. His work has been published by international labels such as Black Truffle, Bocian, Kye and Touch http://www.joetalia.com/

Jon Rose: violin, Alice Springs NT

Jon Rose – violinist, composer, improviser, instrument builder, multi-media artist, inventor of the interactive violin bow, and cultural critic. His primary life’s work is The Relative Violin. This is the development of a total artform based around the one instrument – it includes innovation in the fields of new instrument design, environmental performance, new instrumental techniques, radiophonic works, and the development of inter-active electronics – while interrogating and intervening in the history of music itself. He performs his group and solo projects world wide. In a 45 year career, he has been featured regularly in the main festivals of New Music, Jazz, performance and Sound Art such as Ars Elektronica, Festival D’Automne, Maerzmusik, Dokumenta, North Sea Jazz Fest, New Music America, the Vienna Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival, Moers Festival, The Melbourne Festival, etc. Jon has appeared on over 90 albums and CD’s; he has been commissioned by the Kronos String Quartet to write and build Music from 4 Fences for the Sydney Opera House; realised his bicycle powered Pursuit project at Canberra 100; performed an improvised solo part for the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; created major radiophonic works for the BBC, ABC, DR, and ORF; toured in Europe with his current improvisational groups; performed his interactive multi-media composition Internal Combustion for violin and orchestra at The Philharmonic, Berlin; been apprehended by the Israeli Defence Forces at the Separation Fence near Ramallah in the occupied territories, and arrested for playing the violin in front of The Sydney Opera House. He is probably the only living violinist with his own museum (The Rosenberg Museum). In 2012 Jon was honored with The Music Board of The Australia Council’s senior prize – the Don Banks Award for a life-time’s achievement and contribution to Australian music. His book about the state of music today Music of Place: Reclaiming a Practice is published by Currency House Press. In 2018, Contemporary Music Review honoured Jon with a complete edition of the magazine dedicated to articles on his life’s output – Jon Rose: The Rosenberg Museum. https://www.jonroseweb.com/

https://youtu.be/gVT9KJqS1aY

Khabat Abas: cello, Iraq/Sweden

Khabat Abas is an experimental cellist, improviser, and composer born in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. She moves freely between artistic disciples and possibilities. Her work has been inspired by noise, improvisation, classical music, contemporary music and narrative story. Embodiment, materiality and sound research are tangible in Khabat’s work which began with the acoustic cello, prepared cello, and recently with adapted cello. In her practice, she questions what is out of the bounds that raise the possibilities. Therefore, she considers herself a rule-breaker, focusing on the cello, making the instrument into a different material, improvising, composing and producing sound installations, and being interested in making videos. Abas has performed with various ensembles, including the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, Sulaymaniyah string orchestra, Gothenburg Academic Symphony Orchestra and the Non-Ensemble for experimental music in Sweden. She has also collaborated with curators, artists and musicians in Kurdistan-Iraq, Sweden, Germany and the UK. Aba’s last piece for electro-acoustic cello was performed in Slemani-Kurdistan as a part of the Global Listening Biennial 2021. She also performed during the Space21 festival in Iraq Kurdistan 2021, Winter sound festival in Canterbury 2022 and the Borderline Festival Athens 2022. She is co-founder of Duo Moment; together with Hardi Kurda, they released two albums, “Broken Resonance” on Space21 Label and “Illegal Performance” at Café Oto 2021; she also did a video for her Bombshell cello. She has been awarded a grant from Salam culture house in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Swedish art council community (konstnärsnämndens).

https://khabatabas.com/

Mark Cauvin: double bassist, Sydney

Mark is an accomplished Experimental Classical Avant-Garde Double Bass Interpreter, Performer, Composer, and Improvisor. He attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (DipMus, 2003), SIAPM Perugia (2006), and Stockhausen Courses in Germany (2010). His first multimedia work Die Dunkelkammer (The Darkroom) for Soloist and Electronic Music was presented at the 2013 PNEM Sound Arts Festival (Netherlands). It has since been presented live in Melbourne, with the Anywhere Festival 2015 in Sydney and Brisbane and at Edith Cowan University in Perth (2015). After a performance in Brisbane, Die Dunkelkammer was cited as being reminiscent of the sounds from a David Lynch film. A self taught tape operator/composer, microphone builder and theatre prop maker, Mark’s propensity to embrace the do-it-yourself subculture has enabled him to create his own individual style. He has self-published his own short film, a 7” record of works composed using a tool that combines a planetarium with miniature double basses called Kontrabassarium and a CD album called Installation of Sound. Mark has received three grants as an individual artist from the Australian Council for the Arts. He has engaged in activities with Ten Days on the Island Festival, New Music Network, Liquid Architecture, Chamber Made Opera, La Mama Musica, Critical Path, PNEM Sound Art Festival (Netherlands), Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK), SEAM, International Symposium for Electronic Art, International Society of Contemporary Music, Anywhere Festival, Now Now, National Experimental Arts Forum/Symbiotica, Australiasian Computer Music Conference, Australian Broadcast Company & Decibel Ensemble. https://vimeo.com/533070786 http://www.markcauvin.com/

MP Hopkins: electronics/voice, Sydney

MP Hopkins is an artist working on Gadigal and Wangal land in Sydney, Australia who makes audio, performance, radiophonic, and textual works. He uses voice, feedback, recording/playback devices, and text scores within different acoustic environments, which are deconstructed and presented to the listener in delicate and degraded ways. Hopkins has released recordings with Penultimate Press, Canti Magnetici, Tahalamos, Albert’s Basement, Mappa Editions, Aussenraum Records and Regional Bears. He has performed locally at events organised by the NOW now, Liquid Architecture, Avantwhatever, and, The Make it Up Club. International appearances include Café Oto, UK; LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore; Les Ateliers Claus, Belgium; TUSK Festival, UK; and Colour Out of Space Festival, UK. Hopkins plays with Sydney, improvising group the Splinter Orchestra, co-presents the radio show Listening Space with Laura Altman.

Nikki Heywood: voice/txt/performance artist, Sydney

Nikki is a Sydney based interdisciplinary artist works across dance, performance, sound, writing & live art focused on embodiment & challenging political & interpersonal themes since 1979. Informed by somatic approaches & improvisational practice her body of work spans solo & collaborative performance & has toured inter/nationally. Her interest in voice encompasses extended vocal techniques, developing expanded experimental sound scores for voice as instrument. She co-curated platforms for improvisation Rushing for the Sloth and Whip It for over a decade.

https://wombatradio.com.au/nikki-heywood/

Peter Farrar: objects/saxophone, Sydney

Peter Farrar is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a degree in Jazz Performance. He has wide experience in performance from mainstream settings through to cutting-edge contemporary improvised music. He is known for his combination of dazzling technique and sublime tone, and is one of Australia’s most respected young saxophonists. Peter has a passionate interest in teaching, to which he brings a unique, but effective, improvisation-based approach. He has experience not only as a private teacher, but also tutoring outstanding student ensembles and coordinating exciting mentoring projects for younger musicians. Peter has performed with leading Australian and international artists including Mike Nock, Dale Gorfinkel, Jim Denley, Amanda Stewart, Wadada Leo Smith and Cor Fuhler. He also works with such groups as Splinter Orchestra, 8-ball, Dave Panichi Septet and Farfinkel Pugowski. “Peter Farrar on alto nearly stole the show with his solo on “Lieb”. He has a tone reminiscent of Ornette Coleman and an expeditious array of ideas.” Peter Wockner, Jazz and Beyond 2006. https://splitrec.bandcamp.com/album/avocado

Peter Knight: composer/trumpeter/sound artist, Melbourne

Perpetually curious, composer/trumpeter/sound artist Peter Knight’s practice exists in the spaces between categories, between genres, and between cultures. In recent years Peter has emerged as a significant international force in contemporary music, initiating commissions, collaborations, and performances with a diverse range of artists including recently, Anthony Braxton (USA), as a soloist with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Nicole Lizée (Canada), Amir ElSaffar (USA), Daniel Wilfred (Arnhem Land), Senyawa (Indonesia), Baliphonics (Sri Lanka), Hyelim Kim (Korea/UK), Paul Grabowsky (Australia) and Alvin Lucier (USA). He has performed his music at some of the most significant festivals and venues in the world including recently: London Jazz Festival, Pierre Boulez Saal (Berlin), JazzFest Berlin, Soundstreams (Toronto), and National Forum of Music (Wroclaw, Poland). Peter has released 12 albums of his music on various labels and in 2022 a new solo album, Shadow Phase, is coming out on the iconic Room40 label. Peter has also been Artistic Director of one of Australia’s leading contemporary ensembles, the Australian Art Orchestra, for the last ten years. Peter has won numerous awards, nominations, and fellowships including the Albert H. Maggs Composition Prize (2017), several AMC Art Music Awards, Bell Jazz Awards, Green Room Theatre Awards, and an Australia Council Music Fellowship (2013). He holds a doctorate from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and was named its Alumnus of the Year in 2013 www.peterknightmusic.com

Rhys Butler: saxophonist, Canberra

Rhys has come to know the cities he has lived in through improvised and noise music. The trio Dinner Sock (Stephen Roach (drums), David Keyton (feedback), and Rhys Butler (saxophones)) formed from the weekly Fugue State Sessions in Guanzhou. The group performed with local experimenters such as Yan Jun, Feng Hao and Li Zenghui and collaborated with musicians transiting China such as Uwe Bastiansen (Faust) and Lucas Abela. Despite living in different corners of the world, Dinner Sock has continued to participate in China’s experimental music scene and played Beijing’s Sally Can’t Dance festival and NOIShanghai in 2012. In Santiago, Chile, Rhys participated in events run by Productura Mutante and played in the free-for-all Collective Improvisation NO. Now residing in Canberra, Rhys has been working in a duo with Reuben Ingall (live processing). More recently he has been part of the Psithurism trio with John Porter and Richard Johnson, which have a new release called Lure out with French clarinetist Xavier Charles. See the SoundOut bandcamp and Francois Houle site in the following links: https://soundoutrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Richard Johnson: wind multi-instrumentalist + , Canberra

Richard performs with the texture of sound on soprano/baritone saxophone and bass clarinet and is experimenting with use of a bass drum with soprano saxophone to create a language of microtonal textural resonance. Also he has been making instruments from conical gourds from PNG, which allow the stripping back of the wind instruments to their most visceral and most sensuous form and allow for the exploration of extended techniques. He has performed at the SoundOut 2010 – 2022 festivals; What is Music Festival, Nownow Festival; the Make it Now performances; also performances with the Brice Glace Ensemble and the 102 Club Orkestra in Grenoble France; “Whip it“ series in Sydney; various Precipice annual Improv workshops hosted by Tony Osbourne as well as hosting local, interstate, and international improvisation nights in Canberra. He is the Director, Curator, Producer and Administrator at SoundOut festivals. As a sound artist he worked with renowned visual Artist Savanhdary Vongpoothorn for the Australia Exhibition at The Casula Power House as well collaborated with conceptual-visual artist Denise Higgins on soundscapes. He has performed with the likes of Jaap Blonk, Jon Rose, Hans Koch, Guylaine Cosseron, Jim Denley, Kim Myhr, Annette Giesreigl, Rodrigo Motoya, Antonio Panda Gianfratti, Thomas Rohrer, Luc Houtkamp, Clayton Thomas, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Yan Jun, Laura Altman, Michael Norris, Evan Dorian, etc. Currently performs with Noise Floor Qrt [Jamie Gifford, Rhys Butler and Rory Villegas]. Has a wind trio with John Porter and Rhys Butler called Psithurism, which has a digital release with the renowned Canadian clarinetist Francois Houle and a new Cd release called Lure on the SoundOut label with Xavier Charles in 2017 SO-003. Also in June 2016 released Cd with Rhys Butler; and Guylaine Cosseron called Swarm on SoundOut Cd’s SO-001. Lure CD Review. He also has a number of field recording releases available from the SoundOut label catalogue bandcamp site.

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2018/06/recent-releases-of-french-clarinetist.html

https://soundoutrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Rory Villegas: trumpet, Canberra

Rory is a third year Jazz trumpet student at the ANU school of Music. He is inspired by free improvisation/free jazz artist’s such Franz Hautzinger from Switzerland, the American Peter Evans, and the captivating minimalism of Nordic trumpet player Arve Henriksen. In a world of too much, Rory suggests, less is better. As a trumpet player with a secret desire in the limitless potential of the trumpet and the ongoing love of free improvisation and jazz he is fascinated by the praxis of playing in the moment. A student of all the small moments of gestural soundscapes that one day will become part of his own label. Recently he joined the new Quartet Noise Floor that includes Jamie Gifford on Bandoneon; Rhys Butler of alto sax and Richard Johnson on wind instruments.

Samuel Pankhusrt: double bass, Brisbane

Samuel has performed with Allan Browne OAM, Paul Grabowsky, Bernie McGann, Missy Higgins, Iain Graindage, Louis Burdett, John Rose, Kate Miller Heidke, Erkki Veltheim, Andrew D’Angelo (USA), the Sun Ra Arkestra, Brian Ritchie (USA), Erik Griswold (USA), Vanessa Tomlinson, Tony Buck, Katie Noonan, The Brodsky String Quartet (UK), Mike Nock, and Indigenous artists William Barton and Aunty Delmae Barton. He is a member of the Australian Art Orchestra and has premiered works by Alvin Lucier (USA), Nicole Lizee (CAN), and Paul Grabowsky. Pankhurst’s collaboration with Butchulla songman Fred Leone – Yirinda – combines ancient Butchulla songlines with Samuel’s eclectic contrabass and compositional style. The were stand out acts at 2019 Supersense: Festival of the Ecstatic, artists in residence at MONA FOMA 2019, and performed at Golden Plains festival 2020. Samuel is currently developing a large scale installation/performance piece with legendary Indigenous artist Archie Moore. The piece tackles Australia’s rich tapestry of racism in the media. He is working on a major commission to write for the Australian Art Orchestra and Yirinda, plus a new sound design for prominent Indigenous dancer/choreographer Thomas Kelly.

https://povertycastles.com/

Tom Fell: saxophones, Canberra

Tom Fell is a saxophonist/improviser based in Canberra, Australia. Tom completed a Bachelor of Music at the ANU in 2010 and has since become one of Canberra’s most well known and in-demand saxophonists. In the jazz space, Tom has performed with renowned artists including Steve Barry, Hugh Barrett, Miroslav Bukovsky, James Greening, John Mackey, Brendan Clarke, Mark Sutton and Eamon Dilworth. In 2020 he co-founded The Fringe of Squaredom, a collaboration with vocalist Rachael Thoms. His versatility has seen him work with acts as diverse as Aria-nominated rapper Citizen Kay, as part of the original theatrical song-cycle ‘Flight Memory’ by Sandy France and Alana Valentine (2019), and with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra (2021). Tom is also active in the improvised music space as a musician and advocate. In 2015/16 he co-curated and performed for the Confluence concert series for Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, attracting several international acts to Canberra. He was featured on the recording Broken-Binary-Brown by Shoeb Ahmad (2017), has performed at SoundOut Festival (2021) and founded the Mt Ainslie Music Club (supported by Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres), a community free improvisation ensemble. Most recently Tom was a participant in the Australian Art Orchestra’s ‘Creative Music Intensive’ at Four Winds, Bermagui (2022). Tom currently performs with The Fringe of Squaredom and as a freelance artist.