| home | | | festival programs | | | "we like you" | | | contact | | | support |
| 2006 artist bios |
|
more coming... |
Hannes Loschel (AUSTRIA) Viennese born, and educated, Hannes Loeshel began his professional musical life as an interpreter of contemporary classical music, with a special focus on modern Austrian and American music - both as a soloist and ensemble musician. Since 1990 Hannes has concentrated on performing improvised electro-acoustic music working with such master musicians as Thomas Lehn, Josef Novotny, Martin Brandlemayr, Taku Sugimoto, Burkard Stagl, Tony Buck and many others. |
Peter Rehberg (AUSTRIA/UK) serious as cancer. Born 1968, Rehberg is an author and performer of electronic audio works living and working in Vienna, Austria. Rehberg has given numerous live performances both solo and collaborative all over the world. He has collaborated live and in studio with Ramon Bauer, General Magic, Jim O'Rourke, Christian Fennesz, Tina Frank, Tujiko Noriko, Kevin Drumm, Russell Haswell, Florian Hecker, Carlos Giffoni, Mika Vainio, Zbigniew Karkowski, Sonic Youth, Rosy Parlane, Keith Rowe, Kaffe Matthews, Marcus Schmickler, AMM, Dennis Cooper as well as being a member of MIMEO. Rehberg took part in the 2nd Göteborg Art Biennale (Against All Evens) curated by CM von Hausswolff. He has also collaborated with choreographers Meg Stuart, Chris Haring, Gisele Vienne (DACM), Gyula Berger and took part in the 2nd Göteborg Art Biennale (Against All Evens) curated by CM von Hausswolff. This is his second visit to Australia, you may have caught him at BIG DAY OUT a few years ago with Farmers Manual. He will be playing solooo on Fri 20 Jan and duo with the one and only Dr Martin Ng on Sat 21. href="http://www.mego.at/pita.html |
Michael Rodgers (Memphis/London) Michael is a multi-instrumentalist who played in Memphis bands before getting involved with free improvisation. Living in London since 2000, he brings a sense of urgency and openness to many musical combinations. Michael co-runs the TwoThousandAnd label with Anthony Guerra, and is the label's designer. Ongoing projects include We're Breaking Up (solo electronics), guitar/turntables outfit Hood Rodgers & Roccisano, and Broken Hands (guitar duo with Guerra). He has toured in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, UK, and USA. In June 2005 Michael co-founded the ResonanceFM programme Coin On The Track with Ross Lambert, Sebastian Lexer, and Seymour Wright, looking at experimental music from many angles. Michael will be on his first trip to Australia and Japan in 2005, reuniting with old friends and making new ones along the way. Much of his music reflects personal ideas of distance, human relationships, density, and things that are invisible. please make him feel very welcome. TwoThousandAnd.com CoinOnTheTrack.com |
Josef Novotny (AUSTRIA) Josef Novotny works as a composer and musician between jazz and new music, performing regularly around Europe. His collaborations include work with Lol Coxhill, Max Nagl, Jonathan Bepler, Franz Hautzinger and many others. |
|
Erkki Velteim (FINLAND) A man on the lunatic fringe of classical music, free improvisation, horror film direction and on-stage problem solving. He is a regular member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and is without doubt one of the most astounding contemporary classical musicians in the world. He happens to live in Melbourne and we are lucky. |
Jeff Henderson (NZ) For many years Jeff has shone the torch for New Zealand’s improvised scene. He directs Happy a performance venue in Wellington and has helped host and manage visits by some of the world’s great improvisers including Evan Parker, Steve Lacy, Matthew Ship, William Parker and Mariyln Crispell. He is one of the true masters of the saxophone and his dedication to his art is an inspiration when he's not bumrushing you. |
Xavier Charles (FRANCE) The work of clarinetist Xavier Charles ranges from noise to electro-acoustic via sound poetry. He has played in numerous new music fesivals in France and abroad. Charles collaborates with both Jacques Di Donato and Frederic Le Junter. In his work with groups and collectives, he has also collaborated with Martin Tetrault, The Ex, Peirre Berthet, Etage 34, Axel Dörner, Jérôme Jeanmart, John Butcher, Jean Pallandre, Marc Pichelin, Chris Cutler, Martine Altenburger, Camel Zékri, Emmanuelle Pellegrini, Michel Donédaand Frédéric Blondy. Currently his musical research ranges from performance on the clarinet and bass to the installation of vibrating speakers, at the edge of improvised music, noisy rock and electro-acoustic sound. He's deeply involved in the music world as an organizer of the fesival "Densités". |
Scott Horscroft Ensemble //PROGRAM LAUNCH DEC 5 2005// "totally absorbing and trance-inducing work of psychedelic beauty. Here eight plus guitarists are patched to a computer; recorded and manipulated live with no overdubs. Each player observes strict, unchanging rhythmic patterns over the course of the recording. However, the dense, shifting rhythms are derived not from the physical attack of the performers, but through the complex interaction of the overtones and harmonic characteristics of the instruments themselves. This makes for one of the most unique and compelling works for electric guitars in recent memory." This ensemble is a finely balanced exploration of restraint and delicacy and is at the same time a full-blown raucous electro-catharsis. The sort of work that will satisfy not only the chin-stroking lovers of abstract electronica but also power-chord enthusiasts. Tony Conrad couldn't get it out of his head. |
Anthony Pateras Anthony is an old weathered genius in a 25 year olds body - (that's he's rapidly weathering.) He is a virtuoso pianist - as evidenced by last years unrecorded 10 minutes of fury - an astounding electronics musician and one of Australia's foremost young contemporary composers. Having him here is killer. |
|
Slawek Janicki The backbone of many of power group, Slawek is a double bassist with extraordinary passion and strength. No mean feat considering he also runs Polands only experimental music venue and is a film maker on the side. This year he performs with Dutch master Kris Wanders and two of Australia's great jazz improvisers Alister Spence and Toby Hall. |
|
Alister Spence One of Australia's foremost pianists and jazz composers. He is the creative force behind the much lauded "Clarion Fracture Zone" and many of Sydney's great jazz ensembles including his own trio - which won an Aria for Three is a Circle in 2004. This will be his first performance at the NOW now. |
Anthony Magen Anthony Magen works as a landscape architect in Melbourne and is interested in the confluence of landscape - soundscape and it implications. This involves work with the Australia Forum for Acoustic Ecology, Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, RMIT, local Councils and deep listening on a everyday basis. He has performed as part of various improvising agglomerates over the last 4 years across Australia. |
Adam Sussmann A totally dedicated practitioner. Adam's explorations with partner Matt Earle have made Stasis Duo one of the most influential groups on the Sydney scene in recent years. In 2006, things went terribly wrong when the stasis duo discovered the X WAVE |
Anthea Caddy Anthea Caddy plays cello. Her performances explore the intersections and abscesses between free improvisation and composed ‘new-music’. These starting points facilitate an intense investigation of acoustic environments. Her first NOW now experience with be ventured into with Thembi Soddell! |
Amanda Stewart //PROGRAM LAUNCH DEC 5 2005// "Amanda Stewart's multiplied voice is all edges, plosives, throat, pssssts running in quick breathless overlap like many persons in one." (Keith Gallach, Real Time) |
Alex Davies Artist, programmer, doll-maker and weapons-designer, Alex Davies is a maverick by anyone's definition. He has made his own unique mark on the art-world while never pandering to its politics. More than once he has ruined an occasion by wading through the crowd drunkenly brandishing one of his many sabers or flails. His monthly newsletter "The Gilded Trough" is a confused and libelous rant based round his rabid right-wing beliefs and warped sexuality. He divides his time between Sydney and Austria for taxation purposes. |
Brendan Walls (SYD) Monster of The Menstruation Sisters, the P in Peking - Brendan lies low in the world of television waiting for his moment to strike. Never one to repeat himself, Brendan is a man of constant re-invention. In this festival he presents the world as he sees it, via vinyl. |
Benjamin Byrne One of the superstars of the laptop generation currently holding UTS hostage, Mr. Byrne (as he is known among those friends he still claims to possess) has become a strong voice in the Splinter Orchestra and a generous contributer to Sydney's contemporary arts community through his committed work towards disorientation and his constant and unrelenting effort to agravate, abuse, antoganise and alienate everyone and everything around him. Inspired by the work of Brian Wilson and Merzbow he is currently working on his own "teenage symphony to god" to be made entirely without the use of melody or a deity higher than himself. |
Barecuts: Lawrence Pike + Adrian Klumpes //PROGRAM LAUNCH DEC 5 2005// A favourite of the NOW now 2005, the bearcuts combine an intimate knowledge of each other with a keen search for THE OTHER. Percussion, drums, vibes and electronics all figure into Laurence's broad palette of sound. Influenced as much by James Brown as Iannis Xenakis, he is a strong rhythmic force with a complex and delicate touch. Adrian is a dude of a number of different keys. The music blasts from this duo like a bat from hell... ahem |
BotBorg Claiming that sound, light, three dimensional space and electrical energy are one and the same phenomena and the capacity of machines to alter neural impulses will bring about the next stage in human evolution. RIP Dr Arkady Botborger. Botborg is Scott Sinclair and Joe Musgrove or Brisbane. |
Chris Abrahams (SYD) Photo by J.Glaysher 2005 Best known for his work with groundbreaking trio The Necks. Chris explores the shimmering harmonic word made available by the sustain pedal and virtuosic rapid fire techniques. He is truly one of the most creative and emotive voices in Australian music. |
Clare Cooper (SYD) photo by Glenn O'Malley, Townsville 2005 Festival co-director, harpist and Guzheng player. ' Clare's varied musical endeavors have taken her around the globe and around rural Australia. She is currently 'Germ' with Chris Abrahams, and 'Alice Cooper' in Hammeriver amidst other projects. She updates this website, and doesn't really enjoy writing in 3rd person so she's going to stop now. |
Cor Fuhler (AMSTERDAM) Amsterdam-based Cor Fuhler works in the improvised field of electronic and contemporary music scenes. Piano is his main instrument, and he seeks to take it musically beyond usual perceptions (with use of computerised VC String Stimulators). Fuhler also manipulates sounds from turntables, Linguaphones, springs etc and filters them through an analogue synth: the EMS Synthi AKS. He often builds his own instruments/instalations/modifications such as the Keyolin:, a violin with keys. |
Camilla Hannan, sound artist (BRIS) Camilla Hannan is a Brisbane based sound artist working primarily in gallery installation and surround sound composition. She is primarily interested in the psychological sonic narrative and the physicality of sound in space. |
Clayton Thomas (SYD) Clayton Thomas is a double bassist and organiser working pretty much exclusively in the world of improvised music. He is the founder of the NOW now festival, the series 'if you like improvised music, we like you' and The Splinter Orchestra. He has recently released two duo recordings, one with Jim Denley, the other with Melbourne based computer musician Robin Fox. He will be performing with the incredible strings of Jon Rose and Chris Abrahams in Artery during the festival, and in trio with Finnish Viola virtuo/weirdo Erkki Velteim and Robin Fox |
Dale Gorfinkle "The Vibes Describes Dale Gorfinkel". His microtonality might cause listeners of the Mike Nock ensemble some confusion "why is the vibraphonist out of tune" would be an apt question. In his duo with Robbie Avenaim, or his esteemed presence in the Splinter Orchestra, this will not be a problem. |
Dave Brown A leading figure in the Melbourne underground since the earl 70's, Dave is best known as the half of the microsonics duo LAZY with Sean Baxter and as a founding member of seminal noise core / free jazz quintet BUCKTRIDER. Check out the interview with him in the latest 'Cyclic Defrost' |
Daniel Whiting |
Emily Morandini Emily is a sound artist and composer working with electronics. computers and mediated / re contextualised media sources, as well as the glockenspeil. Best known on these shores as half of UBERCUBE with Monica Brooks, Emily is also well known as an installation artist of 'ill repute'. As RUN DMC would say. |
Gary Butler If you're afraid, how do you think we feel? The OG of prepared guitar, Gary has carved a niche in the Australian new music psche big enough to fit his family in - which he sometimes does. A master of the absurd and a doctor of the prepared. |
germ //PROGRAM LAUNCH DEC 5 2005// germ are chris abrahams on DX7 and clare cooper on guzheng |
|
Ivan Lisyak Engages in the deconstruction of time and space within the parameters of sound utilising VHS tape hiss, among many other techniques, in an attempt to elevate tired computer mediated techniques in sound art. |
|
Ian Peterise A Slimey Thing, A Ricatetas, A splinter! Can this man be all things to all people? A deft improviser with an ear for understatement, this will be Ian's first appearance at the NOW now, please make him welcome and congratulate him for not throwing chickens into the audience. |
Inge Olmheim (NORWAY/293 KING ST) Active member of the Splinter Orchestra and regular performer. Using a mix of field recordings, minidisc manipulations, feedback systems and subtle laptop processing he creates an ambiguous and beguiling sound world. |
Joyce Hinterding Joyce Hinterding is a cross media artist living and working in Sydney who focuses on a form of work concerned with energy and sound. At the heart of her work is the exploration of the seemingly invisible phenomena that pervade our very existence: electricity, the sounds of weather or electro-magnetic fields. Consistent throughout her oeuvre has been the desire to make the invisible visible. |
Joe Derrick (SYD) trumpet prince, his age and baby face good looks are not to be misjudged. |
Jon Rose Since the mid 70's Jon has left and indelible mark on Australian music. A violinist who's skills, intensity and masterful creative thinking have inspired a generation of performers. For the full, multiple essay, warped vision web experience visit www.jonroseweb.com |
Jim Denley (SYD) To paraphrase a casual Jon Rose, 'the most refined and complex music available on the planet can be found in the work of Jim Denley.' wind instruments and electronics. born Australia 22/1/57. An emphasis on spontaneity, site-specific work and collaboration has been central to his work. He sees no clear distinctions between his roles as instrumentalist, improviser and composer. He is working towards a paradigm shift in the notion and perception of the saxophone; to establish itąs relevance to ancient and current traditions in Australian and World music. He has played throughout Australia, Europe and the US with musicians such as Burkhard Beins, Clare Cooper, Derek Bailey, Chris Abrahams, Keith Rowe, Otomo Yoshihide, Adam Sussman, Fred Frith, Phil Niblock, John Butcher, Chris Burn, Matt Earle, Trey Spruance, Annick Nozarti, Robbie Avenaim, Axel Doerner, Oren Ambarchi, Tony Buck, Martin Klapper, Ikue Mori, Clayton Thomas and Annette Krebs. |
|
Joel Stern (BRIS) 1979. lives in Melbourne, Australia. Joel is a sound artist exploring electroacoustic approaches to composed and freely improvised music. He performs using field recordings, contact microphones, found objects, digital processing techniques and simple feedback systems, producing works which move between richly textural surface noise, investigations of acoustic space, and minute gestural detail. Joel has performed and produced work for galleries, theaters, pubs, and squatted indian restaurants throughout Australia and Europe and has released music on labels including Impermanent, TwoThousandAnd, Touch, Groundfault and Paradisc. He is currently half of 'Abject Leader Cinema' (see Sally Golding bio) |
DJ Janette Howard very special guest from Melbourne |
|
Karen Booth A quiet, delicate and extremely passionate improviser, Karen is visiting us to make the splinter orchestra and the world a better place. |
Kris Wanders Kris Wanders is an original member of the Globe Unity Orchestra and one of the founders of the European Free movement. His dedication to intensity, power and glacial forces are legendary. We are indeed honored that he now calls Australia home and continues to kick our asses. |
Louise Curham (SYD) Louise Curham is a Sydney based film maker/visual artist and co-convenor of the of the screening group the Sydney Moving Image Coalition. Louise deals in material film - hand made films, performed films, Expanded Cinema re-enactments, film installation and abstract film strips as photographs. An interest in film as score began with Melbourne composer David Young. Work with improvised music has featured collaborations in sound and music with nYLSTOCH, Mike Cooper, Stasis Duo, the splinter orchestra 2005 and the Loop Orchestra. |
Luke Callaghan Computer musician, composer, university graduate! A core member of the splinter orchestra, Luke is a natural improviser and dedicated explorer, searching the farthest reaches of his sound card, bowed guitar and the odd waterfall. |
Lawrence English (BRIS) Dude from room::40:: Brisbane and soundsmasher and mizer who's work calls into question the established relationships of sounds – from experimental soundscapes and free improvisation to processed beat works and concréte-influenced compositions. |
Milica Stephanovic (SYD) Milica is a professional musician, composer and tutor. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Music) Honours degree in 2000 from the University of Western Sydney and a graduate of the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, Milica has been active in the music industry for over 10 years. She is one of Sydney's most sought after bass guitarists and appears on many recordings. Milica has toured both nationally and internationally with groups such as the Michael Henry Trio, Panda, Genevieve Maynard Trio, Peregrine, the Splinter Orchestra and Angel Gear. Milica is also a prolific composer whose work has been performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Sydney International Festival of New Music. |
Michael Sheridan The driving guitar force of Peril and The Great White Noise, Michael is a musical chameleon moving deftly between the languages of jazz, noise, pop and experimental digital media. A passionate and dedicated improviser to the core. |
Martin Ng Part time heart sugeon, Dr Martin Ng is arguably (by him) the most intellegent human being to ever play a turntable. The experience is captivating, not to mention metaphorically pertinent. He performs in two duets: with Oren Ambarchi on Wednesday night, and with Peter Rehburg on Saturday night. |
Mike Majkowski Double bassist and composer, Mike is a recent graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and if his recital is anything to go by, the next big thing in Australian jazz. This will not stop him making a forceful and inspiring contribution to The Splinter Orchestra, of which he is a founding member. A much loved Mike. |
Mark Harwood He is synaesthesia. There is a dictionary definition and web site to help explain. |
Monica Brooks Pianist, Accordionist and computer musician, Monica has been a long time contributor to the NOW now, Impermanent Audio and the Western Sydney Massive. |
Matt Earle photo by J.Glaysher "the most important musician in Sydney" Jim Denley Nov 2003 Matthew lives in the Blue Mountains, is one half of 'stasis duo' and rocks socks in X-Wave, Mos Eisley, Hammeriver and Antipan |
Natasha Anderson, bass recorder (MELB) "It’s just a recorder, and no, I didn’t make it." Natasha Anderson is a master of the often played but rarely mastered instrumental tradition the recorder, her forte being the bass recorder, which appears to be more like a periscope - and often sounds like one. |
Phillip Samartzis (MELB) Anticipate the unpredictable. Maps out a mysterious travelogue through impossible, everchanging soundworlds while completely filled with bizarrely evolving electroacoustic elements. |
Oren Ambarchi photo by mr snow (oren on the right) The Other Co-Founder of What is Music, Oren is Australia's most well known experimental musician. Working internationally for much of the year, his work on French label Touch has redefined the language of the guitar and taken his astounding work to the world. His performance at the NOW now is a rare one. orenambarchi.com |
Pia Borg (MELB) Animator using traditional methods such as collage, stop motion, illustration and hand made film techniques to assemble found dust, rust, ash, insects, etchings, found objects and footage into dark environments. |
Peter Newman |
Peter Farrar BA / Mus file under: jazz / free improv ref: splinter orchestra / small ensembles customers who purchased this also purchased: jim denley, axel dorner, john butcher, mashall allen. |
|
Peter Blamey (SYD) Peter is a Sydney-based musician and sound artist working with whatever comes to hand, with the aim of emphasising the material aspects of sound. Lately this has led to a backhanded combination of systematic and improvised methods for working with mixer feedback and saturation, the sounds from which then shuffle, spike, catch, fray and perforate each other before or during their trip to the speakers. He has a cd release, "salted felt", on impermanent.recordings. |
|
Rory Brown (SYD) We are excited that Rory has come back to Sydney after months and months and months down south! more soon... |
Robin Fox Currently working with LASERS and live digital media in improvised, and composed settings, the backscatter project fuses sound and light at the level of electrical current. The electrical signal that moves the speaker cones gives life to an electron beam housed in a cathode ray tube. The result is phenomena bordering on synaesthetic experience. |
Rik Rue (SYD) a legend of Australian music. Rik is an authority on the sampling, and performance of native sound worlds as well as documeneting yackers on the soap box in the domain for thirty ye |
Rod Cooper (MELB) Rod started his musical career making cast iron furniture and sculpture. His engagement as a sound artist was found through the underground network of the Cave Clan - dedicated to creating site specific work for the interior of industrial structures. His instruments reflect his intimate dedication to craft and the desire to make sounds that deal with the detail within the superstructure. |
Robbie Avenaim (SYD) Co-founder of the What is Music? Festival and rebel percussionist of the Sydney / Melbourne divide, Robbie is constantly re-appraising his sonic boundaries. He has performed internationally with Keith Rowe, Satchiko M and Otomo Yoshihide - and that was in one day! |
Shannon O'Neill (SYD) Media artist who works across music, radio, Internet, film/video and installation. He is a founding member of the Alias Frequencies electronic arts collective, an Australian organization that promotes and publishes collage-based music and media art. |
Simon Ferenci (SYD) |
the Splinter Orchestra (INTERNATIONAL VERSION) photo by j.glaysher Combination of Sydney’s most dedicated improvisers and electronic musicians; the orchestra has strived to establish a group understanding through which a space of pure improvisation and delicate interaction is possible. |
|
Sam Hamilton Auckland based sound artist, organiser and basic font of enthusiasm. Sam is busy young man doing what all busy young men should be doing - promoting and making creative, disturbing, and ingenious music. |
|
Sally Golding, Abject Leader Cinema (BRIS) Sally Golding is a filmmaker and projectionist whose work combines materialist abstraction with dreamlike half-narrative flickers from the unconscious archive. Sally is currently restoring rare and valuable film prints from the State Library archives in Queensland whilst simultaneously subjecting her own films to various states of degradation. Together with Joel Stern she is 'Abject Leader cinema.' abject leader perform expanded cinema pieces for multiple 16mm projectors, handmade film, feedback systems, incongruous foley noise, sprockets and flicker, trumpet, and cardboard boxes. abject leader are sally golding (film, projectors etc.) and joel stern (concrete sound, feedback etc.). In the last year they have played what is music?, the nownow, smallblackbox, sycretism, and in Toowoomba. |
Stephen Morley |
Sub Bass Snarl will be guest star dj in the festival bar, Level 1 on Saturday the 21st http://www.snarl.org/sbs/sbsbio.html |
Sean Baxter "Sean Baxter" I exclaimed. "Sean Baxter? Roni repeated. "Do you know him?" "Not to talk to," I said. "I know who he is though. He plays oboe in the orchestra. "Is he cute?" Justine asked. |
Tony Buck Australia's foremost percussionist, Tony has been living in Europe for 12 years, performing and recording with every major improviser of the last two decades. His phenomenal technique and deeply personal language have inspired a generation of Australian musicians. |
Tofutron TOFUTRON: Is that a dance floor? We are tofutron. Why are you here? Your chair is not a dancefloor? Do you know who we are? We are tofutron. Prepare for what is next? |
Toecutter VS DJ Arsecrack If there wasn't music, we fear for what they might have become. Friday night, 1am. Level 1. |
Thembi Soddell Based in Melbourne, Thembi focuses on the abstract and textural nature of sound, intricately sculpting field recordings and generated sounds into dark, suggestive and largely dynamic sonic landscapes. CD Intimacy released in 2004 and brand new 'instance' available through Cajid Media. |
|
X Wave are Adam Sussmann, James Heighway and Matt Earle |
