The section below outlines sound art and music projects: the first an LP recorded in the Indian Himalaya and the second an LP recorded in Sydney. Other sound/music work includes sound design for films, and writing and performing music for films and audiovisual performances.
seed in space/sound in time (2017)
seed in space/sound in time represents the natural vs artificial temperatures experienced by three Wollemi Pine seeds during a 2008 NASA experiment. Each of the three tracks maps the temperature of one of the corresponding seeds over the year-long duration of the experiment, where every second of sound equals 12 hours of the experiment.
The left channel maps the temperature experienced by a Wollemi control sample seed in Mount Annan seedbank. The right channel maps the temperature of an experimental seed on the International Space Station. In the center channel is the ‘natural’ climate experienced by an uncollected seed still lying in Wollemi National Park.
The sound samples are all of the Snowy Tree Cricket, which modifies its pitch and pulse rate according to changes in its ambient temperature. The work is in four sections, for the four seasons of the year, where the ‘natural’ climate of the outdoor seed follows the seasons, while the artificial climate of the seedbank and space station follow one another closely, following the attempt to keep these seeds in identical controlled climates.
Commissioned by the ARC Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions, University of Melbourne for 'Art and Herbarium: Creative Ecological Investigations,' exhibition, 2-16 March 2017, LAB-14 Gallery, Melbourne. Catalogue essay available here.
all over the psychedelicatessence (2001-8)
all over the psychedelicatessence is an album of 10 tracks (duration 45 mins) of eclectic music that oscillates between improv, experimental, electroacoustic, ambient, post-folk, noise, sound-art, glitch and electronica...rolled together into eclectrictronica. The title refers to ‘foods of the imagination’ from all-over-the-shop sessions which disbarred discussions/planning/preparation/rehearsal of what sounds were concocted in the spontaneous improvisational compositions. Instead, an arsenal of acoustic+electronic instruments were subject to live editing/mixing/mangling within convoluted cybernetic systems of interconnected Digital Signal Processing.
The instruments used were acoustic+electric guitars, bass guitars, sitar, cello, voices, flutes, thumb piano, djembe, acoustic drums, tabla, keyboards, synthesizers, theramin, metronomes, tape spool machines, a washing machine, a steam iron, a kitchen sink and detuned radios. I then subjected these live recordings to live improvisational editing/mixing/mangling/processing as they were compiled through post-production. Residue of the original spontaneity is embedded into the lasagne layers of sounds, so the eventual outcome sits somewhere between chaos and control.
It was recorded in 13 sessions between 2001-3 in Sydney, Australia @PhatCupOfTea, Bondi + Super Love Brain Studios, Nulladale with Tr6pt3 coined + recorded with The Magic Doughnuts at Mike Hafliger’s Duni Fire Recording Studio in Kalga, Parvati Valley, Indian Himalaya. Tracks 1, 6, 7, 9 are solo tracks, and 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 were made with a cohort of collaborators in Australia (Richard Cartwright, Phillip Wood, Richard Schweizer and David Watts) and India (David Bosshard, Mike Häfliger, Richard Cartwright and Phillip Wood.
The album was released on the Experimedialabel in November 2008 (catalogue exp049). It can be streamed here and downloaded here.
The front album cover can be downloaded here, rear here and inside cover here. A short story I wrote to go with the album, rabid rabbits choking on more than you can chew, can be downloaded here.
Roles: Producer, Engineer, Arranger, Mixer, Editor, Co-writer, Co-Performer
Front cover
Inside sleeve
Rear cover
Love and Satisfaction on the Duna 25 (2000)
Love and Satisfaction on the Duna 25 is an LP album made with The Magic Doughnuts, a group of Australian (myself, Richard Cartwright and Phillip Wood), Scottish (Paul Blunt) and Swiss (Mike Häfliger and David Bosshard) musicians who met in an isolated valley of the Indian Himalayas, where Mike Häfliger had made a recording studio in a remote village hamlet. The album was produced, arranged and engineered by Mike Häfliger, with collective compositions and performances contributed by the group. More info about the album is available here.