Artists

Make It Now

Information on invited artists for the Make It Now festival below. Many guest artists will be performing in each session.

Sydney - Jim Denley / Clare Cooper / Robbie Avenaim
Melbourne - Anthony Pateras / Natasha Anderson / Joel Stern
Brisbane - Lawrence English / Joe Musgrove / Scott Sinclair

Jim Denley (Flutes/Saxophone - Sydney)
"The components of his instruments became part of the musical process, rather than just a means to an end. The tubes of his bass flute, for instance, were scraped together and blown into in almost every conceivable way, with a creak in the floorboards even being brought into the act." (Sydney Morning Herald). Improvisation, with its 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. In the 1980's he played in the Relative Band with the string player Jon Rose. Since 1989 he has been working with the text/music group Machine for Making Sense. He has played throughout Australia, Europe and the US with musicians and dancers such as Tess DeQuincy, Burkhard Beins, Chris Abrahams, Keith Rowe, Otomo Yoshihide, Fred Frith, Phil Niblock, Trey Spruance, Annick Nozarti, Axel Doerner, Oren Ambarchi, Tony Buck, Martin Klapper, Ikue Mori, Annette Krebs, and Shelley Hirsch. This year he has played at festivals in Liege, France, Wellington, Melbourne and Berlin.

Clare Cooper (Harp - Sydney)
"Improvising harpists are about as rare as smart arsonists and Cooper's harp is a fresh, glistening force." (Sydney Morning Herald). Clare has developed a unique and extended series of techniques for improvising on the harp. Over the last couple few years she has played in Europe, Australia and New Zealand with all the major players in the emerging Australasian new improv scene. When not playing Harp she is a 3D animator and co-organiser of the NOWnow series and festival of spontaneous music (see http://www.thenownow.net).

Robbie Avenaim (Percussion - Sydney)
A percussionist who uses a vast array of junk and found objects as well as samples and electronics - Robbie did not study music. Since 1990 he has been involved in the Australian experimental music community, originally as a drummer who played anything from Be-Bop/Brazilian music to punk noise improv etc. Since 1996 he has been involved in international experimental music communities where he has performed with artists such as Keith Rowe and John Zorn. He has organised the Australia-wide What Is Music? festival since 1994.

Anthony Pateras (Piano/Electronics - Melbourne)
Anthony Pateras is a composer/pianist working at the nexus of notated composition, improvisation and electronics. His primary interests include contemporary improvisation, post-1940?s composition, Balkan folk musics, real-time electronics and noise. Contributing regularly to the Australian experimental music circuit as a curator and performer, he performs on prepared piano with guitarist David Brown and percussionist Sean Baxter, and on electronics and voice with electronic artist Robin Fox ? the duo having performed throughout Europe, New York & Tokyo. Pateras has also written music for short films screened at festivals in the USA (Telluride, Hawaii, Mill Valley), Europe (Cannes, La Huesca, Dresden), South America (Rio), Australia (Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane), and to date has released two albums - Coagulate (with Robin Fox) and Malfunction Studies - both on Synaesthesia Records (www.synrecords.com). His third album, Mutant Theatre, will be released in 2004 on Tzadik and he is currently completing a PhD in composition at Monash University in Melbourne.

Natasha Anderson (Amplified Bass Recorder - Melbourne)
Natasha Anderson is a Melbourne based recorder player, performer and improviser. Since completing her studies at the Amsterdam Conservatorium, she has performed in genres ranging from Baroque to contemporary classical, new music theatre and electro-acoustic improvisation in Denmark, London, France, Japan and around Australia. Natasha has variously performed, recorded for the ABC and toured internationally with Aphids Events, the Aphids Trio, the Libra and Elision Ensembles and Maximum Legroom. Recently she has devised and performed mixed media performances for the Virtuosic Visions series at the Melbourne Museum (2001/2002), Liquid Architecture 3 (the 3rd National Festival of Sound Art), the Articulating Space series and recorded a solo CD with funding from the Australia Council and the Dansk Statens Kunst Fond. In October 2002 she performed in the European production of MAPS, a new music theatre collaboration between Aphids Events (Melbourne) and Kokon (Denmark) and co-produced Revelations, a large scale multi-media installation performance for the Organs of the Goldfields Festival.

Joel Stern (Electronics - Melbourne)
Joel is a sound artist exploring various approaches to electro-acoustic music, both in a compositional and freely improvised context. Typically he performs using field recordings, contact microphones, found objects, digital processing techniques and simple feedback systems, producing works which move openly between richly textural surface noise, investigations of acoustic space, and minute gestural detail. Between 2000 and 2003 Joel was based in London where he was an active contributor in the experimental music scene, performing regularly as a solo artist and in improvising groups. He now lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Lawrence English (Laptop/Turntables - Brisbane)
Interested in the potential of seemingly unrelated musical forms, from experimental soundscapes and free improvisation to processed beat works and concrete-influenced compositions, his back catalogue spans a dynamic range of styles and sounds. London's Time Out referred to his output as 'ambient twisted soundscapes and challenging sonic scree'. 'Transit', the latest work under the I/O moniker, sees English script his sound-pieces using a vast array of field recordings collected abroad in Japan, the UK, Thailand, Vietnam and locally in Australia. From these recordings, Transit's sound tapestries - a combination of rich textures and humming sub bass tones cushioning a blend of organic and digital elements - have been created.

Joe Musgrove (Turntable/Electronics - Brisbane)
Joe Musgrove has been active recording and performing experimental / electronic / improvised / etc music/ sound/ noise/ whatever in Brisbane since 1997.In that time, he has been involved in over 30 small run releases documenting numerous collaborations and solo projects. His work makes use of techniques ranging from abuse of antiquated turntables and free improvisation to tape manipulation and realtime DSP, and covers sonic ground from chaotic beat driven noise (Masami Bin Laden) to psychedelic drones (Biffplex).

Scott Sinclair (Guitar/Electronics - Brisbane)
Scott's sound works run a wide spectrum of styles including combinations of ambient drones, sampled noise, non-linear rhythms, field recordings, and guitar/electronics improvisations. Initially attracted to the freedom of expression found in improvisation, Scott's subsequent projects aimed to merge primeval chaos with sinister uses of minimalism. He also formed a bias towards combining other extremes of musicality: very fast or very slow; very high or low pitched frequencies; overtly alien and organic sounds. Scott?s time has been increasingly devoted towards merging improvisation in two instruments - guitar (non)playing and empty samplers/mixers. Feedback networks; found objects and junk; purely acoustic and electronic elements; all come together to make dissonant layers of metallic thunk!

Website: http://www.halftheory.com/archive/smallblackbox.com.au_2001-2005/makeitnow/