The NOW now festival 2017

The 16th annual festival of improvised, spontaneous and experimental music features a remarkable national and international line up of creative humans. Over four nights (and a few days) in Redfern, musicians, dancers, sound artists, and other inspired creative do-ers will make their mark on our lives, one set at a time. The NOW now 2017 will be entirely artist powered. To raise funds, festival co-founder and co-curator Clayton Thomas will play the longest world's longest bass solo at MONA on January 14. To show your support, please visit www.gofundme.com/the-worlds-longest-bass-solo and help us get this puppy off the ground. $20 / $15 PER NIGHT $60 / $45 FESTIVAL PASS Thursday Jan 19, 2017 Presented with Inland 7:00 CONCERT ROOM Rohan Drape, solo electronics Ingar Zach, (Norway) solo percussion 8:00 GALLERY Great Waitress Magda Mayas (Berlin), prepared piano Laura Altman, clarinet Monika Brooks, accordion 9:30 CONCERT ROOM True Strength Alexander Garsden, guitar & Ida Duelund-Hansen, voice (Copenhagen) 10:30 Morton Feldman 'palais de mari' performed by Joy Lee. Friday Jan 20, 2017 7:00 GALLERY Ingar Zach (Norway), percussion Cor Fuhler, prepared piano Jim Denley, woodwinds Melanie Herbert, violin 8:00 Vavenge Nicola Morton, vocals, synth Matt Earle, percussion Nick Dan, vocals, synth Anthony Guerra, bass with Mimi Kind's Rhythm Machine Sass Hound with Simo Soo & Frontier Dominion BAR dj Xiaoran Shi 9:30 CONCERT ROOM LUCY CLICHE Lucy Phelan, electronics and voice DISPOSSESSED Serwah Attafuah Jarrod Osei Birrugan Dunn-Velasco Enderie Nuatal & SEZZO SNOT Andrew McLellan Sezzo Snot Visuals from VJ Icki Sweet & Jadis M Saturday Jan 21, 2017 (AFTERNOON CONCERT) 2:00 – 5:00 GALLERY A Walk in the Partch Trevor Brown, saxophone 3 hour drone performance utilising field recordings and saxophone. 5:30 UPSTAIRS GALLERY / BALCONY Talk: Douglas Kahn: Climate Change and its relationship to sound Douglas Kahn is Professor of Media and Innovation at the National Institute of Experimental Arts (NIEA), University of New South Wales, Sydney. Historian and theorist of the media arts and experimental music with concentrations in the study of sound, electromagnetism, and natural media. Click here to visit his website: http://www.douglaskahn.com/ 6:30 GALLERY Sonya Holowell, voice Jonathan Holowell, piano "The Abandoned Street Organ" Solo by Jon Rose on this semi-dysfunctional, temperamentally tuned, found object, and utilizing the 33 year old Don Mori revolving speaker (powered by a washing machine motor) in a surround sound spectacular. Korsakoff's Syndrome Shota Matsumura, guitar, electronics Laurence Williams, guitar, robots with Ivey Wawn, movement 8:00 CONCERT ROOM Kusum Normoyle, voice & feedback Clayton Thomas, double bass & objects Mary Rapp, voice & cello 10:00 GALLERY Jeff Henderson & The Not Quite Quiet Choir Jeff Henderson, conduction and baritone saxophone Christian Meass Svendsen, double bass Holly Connor, drums Cor Fuhler, piano Shota Matsumura, trumpet Sam Gill, alto saxophone Irene Kepl, violin 10:45 CONCERT ROOM Jasmine Guffond, electronics Sunday Jan 22, 2017 An afternoon concert 3:00 – 5:00 REDFERN OVAL, Corner of Redfern & Chalmers Street, Redfern A day in the park with Splinter Orchestra and Prophets For over 15 years the Splinter Orchestra have developed a unique and culturally specific music. This out-door event presents its own musical surprises, allowing audience to move throughout the park and hearing each sound, both made and environmental, with new focus. After touring the streets of Europe as one of the most dauntingly original busking groups of all-time, Prophets return to the outdoors for this Redfern Park Performance. 5:30 UPSTAIRS BALCONY Workshop String improvising in the age of computers, social-media, overwhelming consumerism, and other odds against. Christian Meaas Svendsen (Norway), double bass Irene Kepl (Austria), violin (Free entry, bring your instrument, or your ears) 6:30 GALLERY Christian Windfeld (Denmark) solo percussion Aviva Endean, bass clarinet solo Christian Meaas-Svendsen (Norway), double bass Irene Kepl (Austria), violin 7:30 CONCERT ROOM Dale Gorfinkel, drums and electronic amplifications Peter Farrar, alto saxophone, electric bass Lucas Abela, glass and blood 8:30 GALLERY PIKELET Evelyn Morris, electronics and voice RHRR trio (France) Xavier Charles, clarinet Frederic Blondy, prepared piano & Guyliane Cosseron, voice INSTALLATIONS UPSTAIRS GALLERY 19-22 JANUARY Open from 12:00am-10:00pm Alexandra Spence Mimi Kind Peter Blamey Bronwen Williams and Karam Hussein Cor Fuhler Alexandra Spence: Here. 2017; various objects Here is a series of small sound installations that consider the connections between place, identity and sound in everyday life. Having recently relocated from the west coast of Canada to the east coast of Australia, these works look to the Pacific Ocean as a point of connectivity. i. Listening to the sea from at least twelve points of hearing. Cassette tapes, cassette deck, (buried) magnetic tape & matchboxes, found objects. ii. 12,493 km. Cassette player, cassette tape, magnetic tape loop, found objects, sand. iii. radio fishpond. Fishpond, hydrophone, radio transmitter, FM radio. afivepence.wordpress.com soundcloud/alexandraspence.com Mimi Kind: Pecking Disorder. 2017; wood, assorted everyday objects, speakers Pecking disorder: an installation of 6 small battery-powered oscillators mounted on tall poles, which collide with everyday objects surrounding them. A drone of erratic rhythms is created as the oscillators and objects collide. Each oscillator can be switched on/off to your taste... what would you like to hear? Peter Blamey: Building Weather. 2017; 3 volt electric motor, wood, plastic, thumb tacks, photovoltaic panels, amplifier, copper wire, ferrite core, foil, cable http://peterblamey.net/ Bronwen Williams and Karam Hussein: Mechanical Popper. 2017; Motor, Paper, Acrylic, Arduino, Wood This sound sculpture is a fusing of the analog and the digital. Here, we have created a playful machine that takes a hand-folded origami popper and uses a mechanical system to activate the paper popper. There is a sense of uselessness, humour and surprise when the popper is set off, disrupting the historically silent and contemplative nature of the gallery space. The artwork is interactive and requires audience participation. bronwenwilliamsart.com karamhussein.com Cor Fuhler: Lucky I am not. 2017 various objects Cor will setup a small intimate installation, weather permitting in the garden, consisting of seven rusty chimes, which he detuned into a specific harmonious world, played in an aleatoric and stochastic fashion by seven golden lucky cats. Cor might add a few more items, depending on what works once everybody else has setup their specific installation. Possibly Doze(n), an interactive setup of 12 music boxes, or singing bowls played by turntables, we will see. http://www.corfuhler.com/installations FEEDBACK An experimental collaboration across sound and vision. FEEDBACK is a music-video program that brings together a group of artists from Western Sydney to collaborate with emerging musicians on the autism spectrum and with other disabilities, working closely with the supported music studio, Club Weld. Musicians: Chris Stiles, TJ Stines, Anthony Talarico, Clare Brown, Ashley Unterrheiner, Anthony B, Andrew Barrett, Helen Lupton and Paolo Donia (with Jerry Kahale, Pasko Schravemade, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle and Sam Worrad Video Artists: Marian Abboud, Heath Franco, Jerry Kahale,Nicola Morton, James Nguyen and Naomi Oliver. Let's get this puppy off the ground. The NOW now 2017 is organised by Danielle Zorbas, Bronwen Williams, Alexander Garsden, Jon Hunter & Clayton Thomas www.thenownow.net We recognise and acknowledge the unique position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Australia’s culture and history; and pay our respect to Elders past and present, including as the traditional custodians of the Gadigal land of Redfern.