word…
“The NOW now festival pressents that all too rare chance to hear the new play with the old, the new-comer with the dab-hand, the wild and woolly and fun and serious; all in the one place and at the same time; audience and musician alike. If you want to find out what’s really going musically in this country you need to be there.”
Peter Blamey – musician and Sinewave PHD candidate
“the NOW now is a really really really really really awesome festival!”
Mike Majkowski, musician and composer - Sydney
“I came for the sounds, I stayed for the silences…”
Ewan Proctor – musician and writer, Sydney
“The NOW now festival has become quite simply one of the most exciting and content filled festivals of new music anywhere on the planet - and unlike many festivals it is well supported by the local punters, many new to improvised music.”
Jon Rose
“The NOW now is an incredibly inspiring festival. I feel fortunate to have been at every festival thus far. Each festval I come away with new musical memories, new thoughts and ideas, different perspectives and having met a new crowd of energized peoples.”
Dale Gorfinkel – Improviser and instrument builder, sydney
“The NOW now Festival has grown to become one of the most important music festivals in Australia. Over the past five years, it has created a whole new community of musicians who come from near and far to play, discuss ideas and form new collaborations. The festival is unique in the way it has forged new networks and links between musicians from different disciplines including improvisation, jazz, sound art, intermedia and electronic music.
Judging by the large, enthusiastic crowds that attend Now now each year, this innovative approach has been a resounding success with audiences as well as performers.”
Amanda Stewart, Writer and Vocalist, Sydney
“The most exciting and edgy event in Sydney’s musical life. An intoxicating cocktail of creativity, with a healthy shot of daring!”
Geoff Sirmai, Watchdog Communications - Sydney Arts Publicist
“…The Now Now Festival is exceptional, successful and important for its provision of new and experimental music. A unique aspect of this festival is its ability to create audiences for contemporary music, whilst also providing a program that presents Australian and international musicians, artists and curators with avenues for performance, contemporaneous debate, collaboration and networking. These outcomes are beneficial in raising the profile of contemporary Australian music, and furthering critical dialogue and performance opportunities for artists and audiences in Australia and Overseas….”
Sarah Last - curator wagga wagga space program inc. bureau of operations
“The NOW now festival of spontaneous music and sound is arguably the most important and genuinely ‘organic” festival of its type in Australia.”
Greg Khoury President Newtown Entertainment Precinct Association
“Having being involved myself in presenting new music for well over a decade, I’m continually astounded at the energy, commitment and organisation of these people. Vive le Now Now!”
Julian Day - Composer & presenter ABC Classic FM
“the NOW now has helped hundreds of artists from diverse musical backgrounds to explore their music with others on a regular basis. Their efforts are to be commended. The now now is the most important musical event in NSW and should be given all the support possible.”
Directors WHAT IS MUSIC festival: robbie avenaim and oren ambarchi
“the NOW now is the closest thing to a collective noun of exciting local and international music practitioners that we have”
Daniel Whiting, musician Sydney
“It was top”
Peter Rehberg, Vienna
“the NOW now is the best music festival in australia by any stretch of the imagination. after the second relentless day of constantly challenging and brilliant performances, i literally felt that i had elevated to a higher ‘creative plain’ by simply existing in this beautiful festival as a punter/performer. maybe this is what superman feels like when he leaves the clumsy human world to go and have tea with his parents at the fortress of solitude…”
Scott Sinclair – Improvising musician and curator of ‘small black box’ Brisbane
“the NOW now festival has allowed us underground misfits to express our passion like no other festival can and it has only begun.”
James Heighway – musician and instrument builder, Blue Mountains
“Without the NOW now I probably wouldn’t leave my house in January, undoubtedly the most important festival in Sydney for our culture”
Lloyd Honeybrook – Improvising musician, Sydney
“The NOW now Festival always leaves me warm and fluffy, like a towel fresh from a tumble drier”
Camilla Hannan - Musician, Brisbane
“Through both the 2001 and 2002 NOW now festivals I experienced a rare glimpse of what a inner-city community could be - people of all walks, shapes, ages and inclinations absorbing an incredible array of performances in the most down-to-earth and accepting environment I think I have experienced at an Australian festival. inaccessable? HA!”
Kirsten Bradley - artist and video improviser – Melbourne
“Thanks so much to you all for a fantastic and rewarding NOW now. All your hard work was made strikingly visible by the fact that nothing seemed to go wrong!
Great to see/talk/drink/listen with yas, and for creating some inspired performances, individually and collectively.”
Sean Baxter, Kunst Musician, Lecturer – Melbourne
“I feel very privileged to be a part of it and can’t believe what an awesome festival you managed to put on.”
Anthea Caddy, Musician – Melbourne
“The spontanious nature of the NOW now fest, the artistic motivation being undogmatic and style overcoming, points the now to the future and makes it the most important musical event on the Oz continent of the year. Basta!”
Cor Fuhler- Curator, Improviser, Amsterdam
“the NOW now unknowingly causes dramatic effects on perception and inspiration”
James Hancock – artist, Sydney
“I have performed at a good number of music festivals throughout New Zealand as well as in Sydney and Melbourne and the two NOW now festivals (2002, 2003) rank among the most stimulating, friendly and colourful of any of them.”
John T Bell Bandmaster N.Z. Dominion Centenary Concert Band
“I had a great time in Sydney. It really kicked off my trip coming down to a big party like the NOW now.”
Michael Rogers, Musian – London
“the NOW now is my christmas, my big day out and my anual open head surgury. long live it.”
stuart j olsen – Musician, Sydney
“The great athmospere, the innovative set-up of programm, the experimental and multi stylistic concept, the links between music, performance, film and soundtrack makes the NowNow to one of my favority festivals for contemporary music & art worldwide. A pleasure to have been part of this!!”.
Hannes Loeschel, composer – Vienna
“Many thanks to the organisers of the NOW now for staging such a crazy, vibrant festival. It’s so nuts its the sonic equivalent of being trapped in wormhole in deep space.”
Ian Pieterse, composer - Sydney
“It was good to see a bit of craziness and high class music down in the big smoke. The NT excels at the former, but you need a good dose of the NOW now to keep up the latter. Good that they can keep the door open to us out-of-towners.”
Robert Curgenven, itinerant Northern Territory renegade and sound artist.
“now now”and its hard working organisers have developed a much needed sense of community in sydney in which creativity and the unexpected can flourish and grow ”
gerard crewdson (nz) trombonist/participant now now 2006
“The NOW now festival has been an essential part of the improvised music calendar for the past 5 years, and has provided me with some very memorable moments, both as a performer and an audience member. As an improviser, these events have allowed me the opportunity to interact (on and off stage) with many of my favourite musicians. The high quality of the Australian and international performers presented at these events is matched only by Clare & Clayton’s extraordinary organisational skill.”
Gary Butler, Doctor of music -Wollongong
“Having been a punter at NOW NOW since its early days at Space 3, I would like to congratulate the curators for the rigour, professionalism and depth of their programming. As a multimedia artist, the festival has expanded my literacy around new forms of sound and music, and enabled me to mix and network with improvisors, software artists and musicians in an exciting and supportive environment”
kate richards, multimedia artist – Sydney
“The NOW now is never a lazy festival. It continually seeks out new performers, not only booking them to play, but pairing them with experienced improvisers to perform. It has a welcoming atmosphere that has seen it engulf inexperienced and seasoned performers and audiences into a buzzing community of sound.”
Tim Roxborough, writer and musician - Sydney
“The festival and in particular its organisers… have had a profound influence on Sydney’s experimental music scene. Overcoming the city’s tendency to cliquey fragmentation, the NOW now has pulled many people from diverse musical backgrounds into its warm embrace. It is a place where improvisation is an ethical, as much as a musical approach. The emphasis is on finding ways of engaging as equals. Similarly remarkable is that audiences have responded with equal warmth and enthusiasm, with an average of over 300 people attending each of the four nights of this year’s festival. The NOW now now plays a vital role in developing local artists and audiences.”
Shannon O’Neill, Musician/Curator – Sydney