SoundOut Festival 2020

(Please see rewards below)

SoundOut is an annual International festival of Free improvisation, Free Jazz and Experimental Musics + held in Canberra. Due to a shortfall in funding from our local government we are running this campaign to ensure the festival continues to realise it's vision of bringing exceptional and innovative music to the South-East region of Australia. We are now in our 11th year as one of the gateway exploratory music-art events providing a much-needed avenue for brilliant musical endeavors from around the world and Australia. We see our role as fostering continued creative collaborations between some of the best Artists, the world has to offer, and our own brilliant Australian artists and showcasing these to the community. In 2020 we have 23 Artists from Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany and the UK that will combine, cross-fertilize, and move sound mountains to uplift your ears and replenish the mind during the 2 day event, which spans approximately 18 hrs of music, over 22 sets. 

There will also be a SoundOut Workshop on the Friday the 31st January 2020 9am - 5pm at the School of Music Big Band Room with Annette Krebs Konstruktion #4 ; Elisabeth Harnik piano; and Achim Kaufmann [piano]Trio with Frank Gratkowski saxophone and Wilbert de Joode double bass. Please see below for rewards details.

See link below to web blog for further info:
http://soundout2020.blogspot.com.au/ 

facebook events page
Festival: https://www.facebook.com/events/399407957610095/ 

Workshop: moved to the Drill Hall Gallery ANU, from 10am - 2pm 

We need to remain strong in our resolve to continue the festival as it is vital part of of the Australian cultural landscape otherwise we face becoming an “endangered cultural species”.

We are running this Gofundme campaign to raise desperately needed funds to cover costs of Artist fees, some travel, accommodation, food, and production and advertising costs.

SoundOut will be hosted on the 1st and 2nd of February 2020 and thus we are endeavoring to raise the funds by late January to be ensured of a successful festival.

Your generous support will mean the difference between survival and closure of the festival and cannot be underestimated. It would help us through another year as we try to ensure greater sustainability. It also means that artists have the opportunity to be heard and supported in a positive fruitful artistic environment, to showcase their skill and innovation to the broader community and be heard by their peers from around the world.

On a personal level this support would mean the absolute world to me. I have been director/producer/curator of this festival for going on 10 years and though we have occasionally been lucky with funding we have not been that fortunate this year. I would personally fund the festival but work part-time in two jobs that as an Artist just pays the bills and thus it would take a HUGE weight off my shoulders to be able to fund this festival without being put into huge debt.

Please support the SoundOut festival!

You can give as much or as little as you can afford, as all is much appreciated and will make a difference!

Simply Donate or choose a reward below

Rewards: [I will keep a note of the rewards you choose and please stipulate them in a note with your choice] Those that have already donated up till now can still choose rewards.

#1.  0 - $19 = our ever loving gratitude + name on our website if you so wish.

#2.  A$20+ = Early Bird Ticket [only available here] to one of the four, [4 - 5.5hr m] sessions at SoundOut:
Session 1. Saturday 1st Feb 1pm - 5pm
Session 2. Saturday 1st Feb 7pm - 11:00pm
Session 3. Sunday 2nd Feb 1pm - 5pm
Session 4. Sunday 2nd Feb 7pm - 11:00pm

#3.  A$50 + =Ticket to one (4 -5.5hrs of music) of the four sessions to choose from at the festival sessions at SoundOut:
Session 1. Saturday 1st Feb 1pm - 5pm
Session 2. Saturday 1st Feb 7pm - 11:00pm
Session 3. Sunday 2nd Feb 1pm - 5pm
Session 4. Sunday 2nd Feb 7pm - 11:00pm
+ one recording from 2 of the sets from the one of the sessions in choice of mp3/flac or wave format

#4. 
$60 waged or $40 concessional (students/unemployed) = 4 hr total  improvisation Workshop conducted by 4 distinguished overseas Artists:
Friday the 31st January @ the Drill Hall Gallery ANU, Canberra
10 am - 12 pm  with   Annette Krebs Konstruktion #4 
 2:30 pm  -   4:30 pm  with  Achim Kaufmann [piano]; Frank Gratkowski saxophone; Wilbert de Joode double bass.


#5.  A$100 + = Tickets to two sessions (8hrs of music)
Choose from:
Session 1. Saturday 1st Feb 1pm - 5pm
Session 2. Saturday 1st Feb 7pm - 11:00pm
Session 3. Sunday 2nd Feb 1pm - 5pm
Session 4. Sunday 2nd Feb 7pm - 11:00pm
+ recordings from 3 sets of music in mp3/flac or wave format.


#6.  A$250 + = Season ticket + 8 hrs of festival recordings with around approximately 19hrs of music to choose from + SoundOut teashirt

#7.  A$500 + = Season ticket + recordings of the entire festival (approximately 19hrs of music) + Soundout Tea shirt

#8.  A$1000 + = Season tickets + recordings of the entire festival (approximately 19hrs of music)
+ a personal drawing from Richard Johnson's pastel drawing based around the improvisations from music = 76cm x 56cm


SoundOut 2020 Program
Saturday 1st February
Afternoon: Session 1 (1pm - 5pm)

1:00
Rhys Butler: alto Sax - Canberra
Richard Johnson: wind instruments – Canberra
Tony Osborne: vocals/electronics – Sydney

1:40
Solo: Peter Hollo/Raven cello electronics, Sydney SOLO

2:20
Dylan Van Der Schyff: drums - Canada
Elisabeth Harnik piano - Austria
Jess Green: guitar – Canberra

3:00
Annette Krebs: Konstruktion #4 SOLO - Germany

3:40
Ben Drury: bass - Canberra
Brian McNamarra: invented instruments - Canberra
Michael Norris: electronics - Queensland

4:20
Workshop ensemble set

Saturday Evening:
Session 2 (7pm - 11:30pm)

7:00 trio
Achim Kaufmann Piano - Germany
Frank Gratkowski: saxophone - Germany
Wilbert de Joode: double bass - Netherlands

7:50
Alexandra Spence: objects - Sydney
Alister Spence: piano - Sydney
Louise Curham: experimental film - Canberra
Shoeb Ahmad: guitar /electronics - Canberra

8:40
Moniker trio
Arthur Bull: Guitar - Canada
Roger Turner: drums - UK
Scott Thomson: trombone - Canada

9:30
180 degrees
Amanda Stewart: vocals - Sydney
Jim Denley: wind instruments Sydney
Nick Ashwood: objects/guitar - Tasmania

10: 20
SoundOut Collective
of the day/nights performers

Sunday 2nd February
Afternoon: Session 3 (1pm - 5pm)

1:00
Ben Drury: double bass - Canberra
Peter Hollo: cello - Sydney
Shoeb Ahmad: guitar - Canberra

1:40
Alister Spence: piano - Sydney
Jess Green: Guitar - Canberra
Wilbert de joode: double bass - Netherlands

2:20
Achim Kaufmann: piano - Germany
Dylan van der Schyff: drums - Canada
Jim Denley: saxophone / flute - Sydney
Scott Thomson: trombone - Canada

3:00 +
Annette Krebs: Konstruktion #4 - Germany
Nick Ashwood: guitar / objects - Tasmania
Rhys Butler: alto saxophone - Canberra

3:40
Alexandra Spence: objects / electronic - Sydney
Elisabeth Harnik: piano - Austria
Frank Gratkowski: saxophone - Germany

4:20
Brian McNamarra: invented instruments - Canberra
Roger Turner: drums- UK
Tony Osborne: vocals - Sydney

Sunday Evening:
Session 4 (7pm - 11:30pm)

7:00 +
Arthur Bull: guitar - Canada
Rhys Butler: Alto Sax, Canberra
Wilbert de Joode: double bass – Netherlands
Peter Hollo: cello - Sydney

7:45 +
Alexandra Spence: objects/electronics - Sydney
Annette Krebs: Konstruktion #4 - Germany
Richard Johnson: wind instruments – Canberra
Dylan van der Schyff: drums - Canada

8:35 +
Ben Drury: double bass - Canberra
Elisabeth Harnik: piano - Austria
Lousie Curham: experimental film - Canberra
Scott Thomson: trombone - Canada

9:10 +
Achim Kaufmann: piano - Germany
Amanda Stewart: vocals - Sydney
Roger Turner: drums - UK

9:40 +
Alister Spence: piano - Sydney
Frank Gratkowski: saxophone - Germany
Jim Denley: wind instruments Sydney
Tony Osborne: vocals - Sydney

10:20
Collective Improvisation (all Performers from the two days)

The Artists this year include:

Alexander Spence: Clarinet, electronics, Sydney

Alister Spence: piano, Sydney

Amanda Stewart: sound performance artist, Sydney

Annette Krebs: Konstruktion #4 , Germany

Achim Kaufmann: piano, Germany

Arthur Bull: guitarist, Canada

Ben Drury: double bass, Canberra

Brian McNamarra: invented electronic instruments, Canberra

Dylan Van Der Schyff: percussion-drums,  Canada

Elisabeth Harnik: piano, Austria

Frank Gratkowski: saxophones/wind instruments, Germany

Jess Green: guitar, Canberra

Jim Denley: saxophone and flutes, Sydney

Louise Curham:  8 & 16mm film projections, Canberra

Michael Norris: electronics, Queensland

Nick Ashwood: prepared guitar, Tasmania

Peter Hollo: Cello, Sydney

Rhys Butler: saxophone, Canberra

Richard Johnson: wind instruments, Canberra

Roger Turner: percussion, UK

Shoeb Ahmad: guitar / electronics, Canberra

Scott Thomson: trombone, Canada

Tony Osborne: vocal/electronics, Sydney

Wilbert de Joode: double bass, Netherlands


SoundOut 2020 Artist Bios 

Achim Kaufmann: piano, Germany

Achim Kaufmann was born into a musical family in Aachen, Germany, in 1962, and became fascinated by jazz and the possibilities of improvisation as a teenager. He started writing tunes around that time. Later he studied music at the Conservatory in Cologne and also took classes with creative masters such as Dave Holland, Steve Coleman, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Steve Lacy.  From 1996 to 2009, he lived in Amsterdam where he became part of that city’s internationally renowned improvised music scene.  Since 2002, he has been touring internationally with the trio Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode, an improvising unit which has released four CDs so far, to much critical acclaim.  In the late ‘90s and ‘00s, Achim led two groups with reed player Michael Moore: trio kamosc and gueuledeloup quartet.  In 2007, he recorded kyrill, a set of compositions for piano trio featuring Valdi Kolli and Jim Black. Their follow-up cd, entitled verivyr, was released in 2011.  He has also collaborated with his wife, poet/painter Gabriele Guenther, on the audiodrama Borderline – From the Shadows of a Journey, and has written music for various chamber ensembles.  In his solo work, mixed techniques are used to create a fluctuating world of sounds and gestures. Resonance and reverberation, space and density play an important role in both his solo and ensemble work.  Since his move to Berlin, he got involved in various new projects, such as the trio grünen with Robert Landfermann and Christian Lillinger, Oni Kramler (with Matthias Schubert, Antonio Borghini, and various guests), and a trio with cellist Okkyung Lee and trumpeter Axel Dörner.  In 2013, the sextet SKEIN (Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode plus Richard Barrett, Okkyung Lee, and Tony Buck) had its premiere at the dOeK festival in Amsterdam and subsequently recorded for SWR radio.   He recently released duo albums with long-standing collaborators Michael Moore and Thomas Heberer.  In addition, Achim has played and/or recorded with  Han Bennink, Mark Dresser, George Lewis, Steve Swallow, Tobias Delius, Wolter Wierbos, Mark Helias, Paul Rutherford, Thomas Lehn, Ab Baars, Paul Lovens, Dylan van der Schyff, Peggy Lee, Chris Speed, Tomász Stanko, Gerd Dudek, Bill Elgart, Paul Lytton, Harri Sjöström, Andrea Parkins, Harris Eisenstadt, Ingrid Laubrock, Tristan Honsinger, Shelley Hirsch, Steve Swell, Thomas Heberer, Urs Leimgruber, Roger Turner, Fay Victor, Fred Lonberg-Holm, John Hollenbeck, Bob Brookmeyer, Simon Nabatov, Lê Quan Ninh, Gerry Hemingway, John Hébert, Al Foster, Adam Nussbaum, and many more.  He was awarded the German SWR Jazz Award in 2001, and the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff award in 2015.  “For many years, Achim Kaufmann has been one of the most inspiring and exciting personalities of the European jazz and improvisation scene. His music bears witness to great harmonic subtlety and structural depth. A brilliant pianist and composer, his reflected exploration of tradition has led him to a nuanced, contemporary sound language that encompasses poetry, energy and abstraction in equal measure.”  http://www.achimkaufmann.com/      https://youtu.be/5wg1MfS4V4M

Alexander Spence: Clarinet, electronics, Sydney

Alexandra works within the fields of sound installation, composition, and improvised music. Alex is interested in the idea of listening as an active practice. She is inspired by the idea of ‘collaborating’ with one’s environment, understanding the relationships between the listener, sound, and the surrounding environment to be a kind of communion or conversation. Her work favours subtlety, quietude and unusual sound sources. Alex has performed and presented work in concerts, festivals, symposiums and galleries in Australia, Canada, and Europe, including the Women In Sound/Women.  On Sound forum: Educating Girls in Sound, Lancaster, UK; NOW now Festival, Sydney, AU; Is This Art? dLux Media Arts, Sydney, AU; Destroy Vancouver, CA; Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, CA; and the FKL Symposium, Besenello, IT. She is the co-curator of Tidal~Signal Festival, which takes place in Vancouver, and aims to highlight women, and transgender artists working in left-field genres, and is a recent graduate of the MFA Interdisciplinary Arts program at Simon Fraser University, CA.   http://alexandraspence.net/

Alister Spence: piano, Sydney

Pianist and composer Alister Spence has established a reputation as a pre-eminent creative force in jazz and improvised music in Australia. The Alister Spence Trio has enjoyed critical acclaim, being nominated twice for Best Australian Jazz Album at the ARIA Awards (2004/2007). Their 7th release, Not Everything but Enough was voted in ‘Top 10 Jazz Albums 2017’ in Music Magazine, Japan, and received ‘Honorary Mention, Best of 2017’ in the New York City Jazz Record.   Alister has also established creative collaborative relationships with internationally recognised improvisers in Japan, Scotland, Sweden, and the US. Since 2008 he has toured and performed with acclaimed Japanese pianist/composer, Satoko Fujii in Japan, Australia, the US and Canada. In 2018 they released three CDs together, including Bright Force (Libra Records), which was described as ‘awe-inspiring music’ 4.5 stars (allaboutjazz.com). Alister has also recorded and toured for many years in Europe, Australia and Japan, with Raymond MacDonald (saxophone, Glasgow). They have released two improvised music albums as a duo, and three as ‘Sensaround,’ an electro-acoustic open-improvisation trio which includes guitarist/electronic musician Sia Ahmad. In 2014 Alister’s improvised piano-duo album, Everything Here is Possible with US pianist Myra Melford received an APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award, and his improvised music trio with Swedish musicians Joe Williamson and Christopher Cantillo was nominated for the same award in 2015. ‘This is the sound of genuine discovery, founded upon decades of experience but unfettered by habit.’  Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine, US (review of intelsat: Spence/Fujii)    ‘Spence has that priceless gift of always leaving you wanting more.’  Jazzwise Magazine, UK       https://www.alisterspence.com/

Amanda Stewart: sound performance artist, Sydney

Amanda is a poet, writer and performer who lives in Sydney.  Since the late seventies she has created and presented a variety of poetic works, performances, radio and multimedia works in Australia, Japan, USA and Europe. In 1989, together with Jim Denley, Chris Mann, Rik Rue and Stevie Wishart, she cofounded Machine for Making Sense, with whom she continues to collaborate.  Also, in 1995, she founded the trio Allos with Anne la Berge and Jim Meneses. Besides, Stewart has worked with musicians, dancers and other artists and is the author of the opera ìthe sinking of the rainbow Warriorî along with the composer Colin Bright.  Stewart works mainly as a soloist and has performed in a diversity of poetry, new music and Intermedia festivals including the Sydney Biennale, Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), poetry international (Rotterdam, Netherlands), the Geneva festival (Switzerland), Polysonnerie (Lyon, France), Donaueschingen Musiktage (Germany) and ten years of Soho festival (new york). her book and cd set of selected poems written between 1980 and 1996 was a finalist in the national digital media awards and won the Anne Elder poetry prize at the national literary awards, Australia, in 1999. since 1995 she has divided her time between Sydney and Europe. in 2003 she was elected a fellow of Stiftung Kulturfonds, Germany, and she is currently working on several new co-joint projects and on her next collection of poetry. On stage, she is one of the most powerful and accomplished Australian poets and this will be her first appearance in Barcelona. Recently she has become part of the new trio “180 degrees” with Jim Denley and Nick Ashwood with their album Sub Mental just released.  https://splitrec.bandcamp.com/album/submental

Annette Krebs: Konstruktion #4, Germany

Since 2013, Annette Krebs has developed and recorded instrumental assemblages of highly amplified metals, strings, objects and microphones. These assemblages "Construction # 1" to "Construction # 4" were originally born out of the need to realize sound visions that could not be played with traditional instruments and setups. Like microscopes, microphones make the finest, otherwise inaudible sound shades and colors of the sound objects audible. The construction series combines analogue and digital techniques and playing styles. The signals of the manually played sound objects are controlled via tablets, transformed and similar to different colors that flow into each other, mix together or stand side by side, musically collaged. The course of time, of stagnant, flowing, frozen time, is explored within the series and sculpturally processed. Annette Krebs was born in Saarland and lives since 1993 in Berlin. Since childhood she plays numerous instruments and is engaged in visual arts. She completed her music studies at the HfMDK in Frankfurt am Main. Before she began developing the series Construction, she gradually deconstructed her original instrument guitar. She was portrayed in 2002 in the magazine "The Wire- Adventures in modern music" (UK) with her first solo CD "guitar solo" ("Fringes Recordings", IT). Their last guitar composition "rush", an acoustic collage that reduces the sounds of the guitar to a final cockroach and cracking, appeared in 2014 on the label "Another Timbre - The Berlin Series no.2" (UK).   Annette Krebs performs as a soloist and in various ensembles worldwide at concerts and festivals (including "100 Years of Bauhaus-The Opening Festival", "Donaueschinger Musiktage", "Heroines Of Sound Festival", "Contacts - Biennale for Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art").   Her music has received numerous grants (including "Senate Department for Culture and Europe", Berlin, "Goethe-Institut", "Cité Internationale des Arts Paris", "Academy of Arts", Berlin, "EMS Elektronmusik Studion", Stockholm) and presented on the radio and in the press (eg "Positions-Texte zur aktuelle Musik", "Deutschlandradio Kultur", "WDR-3", "BR Klassik").   In addition to her artistic work, she teaches her techniques and helps others to develop their musical expression.    https://www.annettekrebs.eu/

Arthur Bull: guitarist, Canada

Guitarist Arthur Bull has been active on the Canadian free improvisation scene since the ‘70s. Much like his compatriot, pianist Al Neil, or the British guitarist Roger Smith, he has kept a low profile and has remained cruelly under-documented. His playing draws inspiration in Derek Bailey's musical vocabulary, with maybe a hint of folk or American roots music in the phrasing. Bull is also a poet, with three collections published in Canada and a translator from Chinese to English. In the early 2000s he was earning a living developing local resource management programs for fishing communities in Nova Scotia, Canada.  Bull's music career starts in Toronto where he was living when American free jazz and European Free Improvisation began to stir interest in Canadian musicians. He took an active part in the communities of artists active in the '70s and '80s, playing with the CCMC -- Toronto's longest-running free improv group -- Michael Snow, the Bill Smith Ensemble, the Paul Cram Ensemble, David Prentice, John Oswald, and Paul Dutton. He occasionally accompanied the spoken word/sound poetry quartet the Four Horsemen (Dutton, Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Steve McCaffery, and BP Nichol) and shared the stage with such luminaries as Derek Bailey and Roscoe Mitchell when they were in town.   In 1990 he moved to Sandy Cove, a small village of fishermen in Nova Scotia. Momentarily disheartened with music, he focused on his writing, publishing Hawthorn and Key to the Highway. In 1996 he hooked up with Daniel Heïkalo, another experimental guitarist -- this one from Montreal -- who had moved to the Maritime province a decade earlier and lived nearby. The duo has been playing regularly since 1999. The release of the CD Dérapages à Cordes on the label Ambiances Magnétiques in 2000 marked Bull's "comeback" to public music. A solo disc, Guitar Solo, followed in 2001 on his friend's imprint Heïkalo Sound Productions. In May of that year, the group appeared at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. In 2002 they performed at the Guelph Jazz Festival and Guitarévolution (Montréal).       http://www.arthbull.ca/

Ben Drury: double bass, Canberra

Benjamin Drury is a composer, sound artist, improviser and beat maker, who lives in Canberra, Australia.   His practise encompasses experimental, popular and classical music, drawing inspiration from a wide and varied collection of sources.   He completed a Bachelor of Music from the ANU School of Music in 2017.   During his time at ANU he was awarded the Harold Wesley Allen Memorial prize (2016, 2017) the ANZCA Composition prize (2016, 2017) and the Dennis Griffin Piano Undergraduate Scholarship (2017).   As a composer, he is fascinated by all facets of sound and audio culture.  His works explore the presentation and reception of sound as well as exploring sound itself.  He is interested in challenging traditional performance models and creating new ways of presenting music.  In the past he has done this through interactive installations like his work Modified Furniture (2017) and site-specific performances like Pieces for Cars Tunnel and Hexagonal Vents (2016).   Sonically his practise explores acoustics, noise and form, seeking ways to subvert the expectations of both art and pop music audiences. He has had works performed by Claire Edwards (CSO Solo Series, 2019, and the Canberra International Music Festival, 2018,), Rohan Dasika (Canberra International Music Festival, 2017,) and Ensemble Offspring (Australian National University, 2016).  He had a work read by Eighth Blackbird (2017) for a public workshop with Musica Viva.  He has performed and had works featured in a variety of festivals including: Canberra International Music Festival (2017, 2018) SoundOut (2016, 2017, 2018) You Are Here (2015, 2016, 2017) Art Not Apart (2016) Tilde~ (2017).  He also plays bass in the band Helena Pop, improvises with Bomber Ensemble, and creates experimental pop music under his own name.   His debut album, Sentence Fragment: Consider Revising, a collection of deconstructed hip-hop beats was released in 2017. He is also part of the recently formed Phage Trio along with invented electronic instrumented builder Brian McNamarra and wind instrumentalist Richard Johnson.

Brian McNamarra: 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/

Dylan Van Der Schyff: percussion-drums, Melbourne/ Canada

Drummer/percussionist Dylan van der Schyff was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and immigrated to Canada in the mid 1970’s. Since the early 90s he has been deeply involved in the field of improvised and experimental music, contributing to almost 200 recordings with artists such as: George Lewis, Joelle Léandre, Barry Guy, Dave Douglas, Mark Helias, Peggy Lee, Nicole Mitchell, Wayne Horvitz, Marilyn Crispell, Torsten Muller, Robin Holcolmb, Michael Moore, Rob Mazurek, Ken Vandermark, Paul Rutherford, John Butcher, Louis Sclavis, Mark Dresser, Achim Kaufmann, Wilbert De Joode, Tobias Delius, Cor Fuhler, and Rene Lussier. He has also appeared with Roswell Rudd, Kenny Werner, John Zorn, Butch Morris, Wadada Leo Smith, Joe Lovano, Georg Graewe, Misha Mengelberg, Gary Peacock, Barre Phillips, Fred Frith, Ellery Eskelin, Satoko Fuji, and Sylvie Courvoisier and among many others. Between, 2014 and 2019, he curated the annual Vancouver Improvised Music Meeting.   Dylan has performed in almost every major centre in Europe and North America including international festivals in Berlin, Lisbon, Madrid Stockholm, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Italy and Norway. Articles about his work have appeared in publications such as Downbeat, Jazz Times, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, The Wire, and Coda.  In addition to his activities as performer, Dylan also maintains an active academic career as a researcher in interdisciplinary musicology. His published work appears in journals that cover a broad spectrum of fields in the sciences and humanities. These include: Frontiers in Neuroscience; Phenomenology and Practice; Psychomusicology: Music Mind and Brain; Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences; Frontiers in Psychology; Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education; Interference: A Journal of Audio Culture; and Psychology of Music. He has also contributed chapters to a number of edited editions, including Oxford University Press handbooks. He is currently leading a coauthored book project entitled Musical Bodies, Musical Minds: Enactive Cognition and the Meaning of Human Musicality. It will be published by the MIT Press in 2020. Between 2017-2019 Dylan was a SSHRC research fellow at the University of Oxford. Beginning in 2020 he will be Senior Lecturer in Jazz and Improvised Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne.      https://whirrboom.bandcamp.com/album/kamosc

Elisabeth Harnik: piano, Austria

Elisabeth Harnik, an Austria based pianist and composer has created a multi-faceted body of work by blurring genre boundaries through various collaborations in the field of improvised music, interdisciplinary projects and contemporary compositional works. She studied classical piano and later – with Beat Furrer – composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz. As an improviser she works  within an electro-acoustic inspired sound-world, using specific preparations and extended techniques while pushing the limitations of the piano. Her performances draw from physicality and introspection, intuitive playing and high precision. Harnik´s unique approach to her instrument as well as to improvisation and composition has led to many concert invitations.  She is member of numerous ensembles for improvised music and has performed and recorded with a number of internationally recognized representatives of the contemporary jazz scene in Europe and abroad. She writes commissioned works in addition to her concert activities, and her compositions are performed regularly at concerts and festivals for new music.  Elisabeth Harnik is a Deep Listening Certificate Holder [Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer in Troy, New York      http://www.deeplistening.rpi.edu/]     in performance with Joelle Leandre    https://youtu.be/nrQBLRbQ-YQ

Frank Gratkowski: saxophones/wind instruments, Germany

Since 2001 Frank Gratkowski has been performing with a trio including Wilbert De Jode (NL) on bass and Achim Kaufmann (D) on piano (CDs “Kwast” and “Unearth”). Since 2006 he’s working with the Trio Gratkowski / Brown / Winant (CDs “Wake” and “Vermilion Traces/Donaueschingen 2009”). He is also a co-leader / composer of the Multiple Joy[ce] Orchestra and got a commission to compose for the ensemble Apartment House by “November Music “ (Den Bosch NL) and the “Huddersfield Comtemporary Music Fesitival” (England) in 2009. Further actual projects are Fo[u]r Alto, a saxophone ensemble dedicated to microtonal music and “Artikulationen E” a solo program for saxophone with 8 channel live electronic.  Frank Gratkowski played on nearly every German and on numerous international Jazz and contemporary music Festivals including Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Quebec, Les Mans, Muelhuus, Groeningen, Nickelsdorf, Barcelona, Lithuania, Warsaw, Zagreb, Prague, Bratislava, Sofia, Bucharest, Odessa and Roma, Huddersfield, London.  He has been teaching saxophone and ensembles at the Cologne, Berlin and Arnhem Conservatory of Music and is giving workshops all around the world.  Furthermore he has performed with Robert Dick, Phil Wachsmann, Radu Malfatti, Herb Robertson, Marcio Mattos, Eugenio Colombo, Peter Kowald, Ray Anderson, Michael Moore, Ken Vandermark, Greg Osby, Kenny Wheeler, Louis Sclavis, John Betsch, Jane Ira Bloom, Connie and Hannes Bauer, Xu Fengxia, James Newton, Muhal Richard Abrams, John Lindberg, Michael Formaneck, Ernst Reijseger, Fred van Hove, Theo Jörgensmann, Phil Minton, Peter Brötzmann, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Hamid Drake, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Mal Waldron, Misha Mengelberg a.m.o.     http://gratkowski.com/       https://youtu.be/5wg1MfS4V4M

Jess Green: guitar, Canberra

Jess was born in Canberra. In 2001 she completed a Bachelor of Music (Jazz Studies) majoring in guitar at the Canberra School of Music, ANU. She graduated with first class honours, and received the Directors Prize. After travel through Europe and West Africa, Jess based herself in Sydney for twelve years, working in a wide variety of styles and settings. Jess has released three recordings under her own name; The Singing Fish (Contemporary Jazz, Jazzgroove Records), The New Dynamites (Alt Rock, Vitamin Records) and Tinkly Tinkly (Contemporary Jazz, Yum Yum Tree Records). Her music has been critically acclaimed nationally, both in print and on radio. She has been nominated for a Freedman award, won the inaugural Jann Rutherford Memorial Award, and was Shortlisted for National Songwriters Association Song Contest ‘Ballad’ category.  Jess has worked extensively as a guitarist and guitarist/singer with many well-known Australian musicians and groups, including touring for The catholics, Jim Conway’s Big Wheel, Petulant Frenzy, The 10 guitar project and Alyx Dennison, as a performing session musician she has worked alongside Katie Noonan, Deborah Conway, Clare Bowditch, Tim Rogers, Urthboy and many more. From 2012-2015 Jess worked as guitarist, and vocalist for Shaun Parker Dance Company, touring major arts festivals in Australia as well as Europe and Malaysia in 2015.   Jess has recorded for television, and dance productions, including channel 9’s ‘Love Child’ series, and also works as a composer, including original scores for theatre productions “Adult Child Dead Child” and “Boys Will Be Boys”.   In 2016 Jess launched an alt-pop project and alternate stage name Pheno (fee-no), her debut EP was released in May 2017 (Dragon Year) and launched in Sydney as part of VIVID. As Pheno Jess won a CAPO award in 2016 and was awarded Australia Council funding to tour the project nationally in 2017, a recent highlight for the Pheno project was supporting New York artist “Joan as Policewoman” for her Canberra show (May 2019).  Jess, now based in Canberra, continues to perform nationally, recent highlights include; 2018, as part of an all female band performing at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, with artists such as Kate Cebrano, Kira Piru, Katie Noonan, Emma Donovan, Dami Im and Archie Roach. In 2019 Jess was part of the house band for Georgia Mooney’s (All My Exes Live in Texas) “Supergroup” working with Fanny Lumsden, Tim Rogers, Urthboy, Ben Salter and many more. Most Recently, Jess was a composer in residence for the Canberra International Music festival (along side Nick Wales and Bree van Reyk) and was commissioned for two pieces “Sing To Sky” (a site specific piece for the James Turrell Skyspace at NGA) and “Shimmer Shimmer”.   Jess is also sought-after music educator and has taught at The Australian Institute of Music, The University of Western Sydney, ANU, CIT, The SIMA Young Women’s Jazz Workshops, and has toured for Musica Viva in Schools for over 10 years.        www.jessgreen.com.au      www.pheno.com.au

Jim Denley: saxophone and flutes, Sydney

Jim is one of Australia's foremost improvisers of new music and known for his improvisations on wind instruments and electronics.  His radio work Collaborations, produced by ABC Radio National radio won the 1989 Prix Italia for radio production.  He was a member of the group Machine for Making Sense with Rik Rue, Amanda Stewart, Chris Mann and Stevie Wishart and has performed in Australia, Europe, Japan and the US with artists such as Chris Abrahams, Clare Cooper, Keith Rowe, Joel Stern, Robbie Avenaim, Jon Rose, John Butcher, Otomo Yoshihide, Fred Frith, Phil Niblock, Trey Spruance, Clayton Thomas, Tess de Quincy, Axel Dörner, Adam Sussman, Ami Yoshida, Oren Ambarchi, Tony Buck, Ikue Mori, Sachiko M, Malcolm Goldstein, Michael Sheridan and Annette Krebs. https://soundcloud.com/jim-denley     https://youtu.be/eTTsouLU8AA
https://splitrec.bandcamp.com/album/submental

Louise Curham: 8 & 16mm film projections, Canberra

Louise Curham is an Australian film maker/visual artist. Working predominantly with found and obsolete moving image materials, Louise’s work addresses the givens of cinema – specifically its usually fixed relationships between projection, audience and image. She works in film performance, installation, experimental film and the re-enactment of live art. She also has performed with leading Improvising musicians such as Chris Abraham (from the Necks); Alister Spence; Australian Art Orchestra to name a few.          https://louisecurham.net/cv/

Michael Norris: electronics and feedback  (Queensland)

Michael has been creating experimental music since 1988 and has been performing both collaborative and solo music, noise and sound art since 2000, mostly in Brisbane with collaborators including Joe Musgrove and Andrew Kettle. He currently presents "Subsequence" – a weekly program of specialist experimental/electronic music broadcast live on 2XX FM, Canberra, and nationally on the Community Radio Network. In 2004, while in the UK for postdoctoral work in computational psychoacoustics, he performed regularly with improv trio Analogorak in Totnes, Devon. At Electrofringe 2002 and 2007 he presented workshops on home made instruments and feedback. Since moving to Canberra in 2007 Michael has performed solo and in live collaborative improvisations with Richard Johnson, and Stephen Barrass. Performed at SoundOut 2011/2012 see review “Spartak/Mike Majkowski/Michael Norris performance on Sunday afternoon where “pitch, tonality and form achieved a beautiful harmony” (BMA Mag below)          http://www.bmamag.com/articles/gig-reviews/20110201-soundout-2011-street-theatre-saturday-sun/

Nick Ashwood: prepared guitar, Tasmania

Nick works in the field of experimental, improvised and composed music.   His main focuses over the past three years have been exploring and utilizing the acoustic possibilities of the steel string acoustic guitar.   Developing a set of techniques that draw on the history of the prepared guitar. Nick is expanding on this language by bring his own individualized approaches using methods of just intonation, preparations, bows and percussion.   Currently Nick is working with number of groups and composers that include; Laura Altman, Jim Denley, Catherine Lamb, Clara de Asis, Robbie Avenaim, Dale Gorfinkel, Amanda Stewart, Splinter orchestra and Fredrik Rasten.   From 2017 Nick has been running his own programming in Hobart with a focus on improvisation /experimental the program has now had over ten successful shows and four workshop and a two-day festival. The programming has had artist come from both Australia and around the world including, Isabelle Duthoit, Franz Hautzinger, Robbie Avenaim, Laura Altman, Jason Kahn, Jim Denly and Cor Fuhler, Amanda Stewart and Greg Kingston. 2019 will see Nick release his first CD on the Sydney label Splitrec followed by a solo acoustic guitar cd – Strings and a composed work by Catherine Lamb to come out on Edition Wanderlweiser records (Berlin) And a piece written for him by Clara de Asis.       https://splitrec.bandcamp.com/album/submental

Peter Hollo: Cello, Sydney

Raven is the solo musical project of Peter Hollo, cellist in FourPlay String Quartet, Tangents and many other ensembles. Started as a response to his growing fandom of idm and experimental electronic music in about 1997, raven continues to reflect his musical interests, which can be seen in some detail via his radio show Utility Fog on FBi Radio. The multi-instrumentalist uses cello, piano, found objects, looping and other fx pedals and laptop programming/processing.  His last album was described by Sydney Scoop as “ostensibly a neo-classical release, but heavily influenced by ambient and industrial music, folk, and even breakbeat electronica”.   In addition to his bands, Peter is known for countless collaborations, including regular appearances live & recorded with Sophie Hutchings and Close to Forever, as well as: a live improvisation on the stage of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall with Lisa Gerrard (view on YouTube); a live solo accompaniment to an exclusive hallucinatory prose-poem by Grant Morrison, also in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall; live and recorded work with: Oren Ambarchi, Manyfingers, X, Shoeb Ahmad, Ollie Bown, Exhibitionist, Deborah Conway, Gerling, Karma County, Jimmy Little, Monsieur Camembert, Ollo, Part Timer, Paul Mac, Setec, the Stiff Gins, Sub Bass Snarl, Holly Throsby, The Whitlams.  

Rhys Butler: alto sax – 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 instruments, 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 – 2016 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 in 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; Guylaine Cosseron and Stephen Roach called Swarm on SoundOut Cd’s SO-001. Lure CD Review.    

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2018/06/recent-releases-of-french-clarinetist.html
https://soundoutrecordings.bandcamp.com/
http://apraamcos.com.au/news/2015/august/art-music-award-winners/ http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/canberra-experimental-music-wins-apra-award-20150826-gj80c3.html
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/102/10290
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue108/10623
http://canberrajazz.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Richard%20Johnson
http://jazz.cyberhalides.com/2013/SoundOutFestival-Theatre3-2-3Feb2013.html
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/fifth-soundout-festival-to-bring-something-different-to-canberras-music-scene-20140119-312ky.html

Roger Turner: percussion, UK

Turner has been working as an improvising percussionist since the early 1970’s, collaborating in numerous established and ad hoc configurations: solo work, work with electro-acoustic ensembles & open--form song, extensive work with dance and visual artists, plus specific jazz-based ensembles have brought collaborations with the most interesting european & international musicians and performers from Annette Peacock to Phil Minton, Cecil Taylor to Masahiko Satoh, Charles Gayle to Lol Coxhill, Derek Bailey to Otomo Yoshihide, Alan Silva to Keith Rowe, Josef Nadj to Min Tanaka, Toshinori Kondo to Axel Dorner, etc. etc.  He has toured and played concerts worldwide from Sydney to the Arctic, Tokyo to Belfast, New York to Beirut.       www.turners-site.com

Shoeb Ahmad: guitar / electronics, Canberra

Shoeb offers a rich and extensive background in Australian music, creating idiosyncratic music over the last decade. Using guitar, keyboard, voice and computer, Shoeb works both as singer/composer and improviser when performing solo and in collaboration. Shoeb has released a diverse range of original music while also working on sound design for dance/theatre, installation pieces and contemporary chamber composition, inspired by 20th Century avant-classical works, Indian ragas and minimalist electronic music. Shoeb has performed throughout Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the SE Asian region as a solo artist and with groups such as Sensaround, Spartak, Tangents and the Australian Art Orchestra.         http://www.shoebahmad.com/

Scott Thomson: trombone, Canada

Scott Thomson is an improvising trombonist and composer based in Montreal. He writes songs based on published authors’ texts for singer and dance artist, Susanna Hood, to be played in many contexts, from duo to octet and sometimes including her choreography. Monicker (with Arthur Bull and Roger Turner) is a good example of Scott’s ongoing commitment to open improvisation. He co-founded the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto (AIMToronto) in 2004 and served as a director until 2009, and co-directed the AIMToronto Orchestra, formed for a project with Anthony Braxton in 2007. In 2016, he convened the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra to play Roscoe Mitchell’s music. He founded Somewhere There, a Toronto creative music venue that hosted 850 concerts during his tenure, 2007-10. He has composed a series of site-specific works for mobile musicians and audiences in unconventional performance contexts including, notably, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Scott programs the Guelph Jazz Festival with Karen Ng.        http://www.scottthomson.ca/bio/

Wilbert de Joode: double bass, Netherlands

Wilbert de Joode (1955) is a veritable research scientist of bass pizzicato and bowing techniques. A self-taught musician, he has been playing the double-bass since 1982.  He began working in groups that improvised within a jazz framework. Other musicians were soon drawn to his idiosyncratic style, and in the mid 80s he played in groups led by Vera Vingerhoeds, Armando Cairo and Ig Henneman where he further developed his improvisation skills.  He came into contact with such musicians as J.C.Tans, Rinus Groeneveld, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Han Buhrs (Schismatics) and Ab Baars.  De Joode is currently one of the most active bass players on the European improvised music circuit. His individual style and musicality transforms the double bass into an equal partner in the most varied ensembles. A personal tone colour, exploration of the outer registers, quirky improvisations and the use of gut strings contribute to an instantly recognizable and intriguing sound.   The seventeen improvised pieces on his first solo cd Olo (distributed by ToonDist) show how rich and complex his sound on the double bass is.
https://youtu.be/5wg1MfS4V4M