Introduction to Sound

Noise: the art of deep listening, performative and cathartic expulsions energy. Experimental in its utmost raw forms. Sound that has no boundary and is purely shared from artist without hesitation. Sometimes recorded, mostly ephemeral, never to see the light of day again. The sounds of a moment shared with others, almost like a timestamp. Understood completely by the artist in forms of scribbled coloured arrows, letters, shapes or designs in a notebook or loose scrunched paper. It feels important, poignant and honest.

The DIY experimental noise scene has roots in various communities, with artists informed by music, tech, art, and dance. The venue might be an outdoor generator show, down a drain, in a gallery or streamed online. Each place holds its own type of value and connections with audiences, all equally as important. Noise art is not a linear format, rather an array of ideas, noise makers and ‘instruments’. Some artists creating harsh penetrating sounds and others with a beat, samples or soundscapes for deeper listening. Each project is unique to the artist, resembling nothing like what has been made before it. No two tracks can ever exist in the same way. It’s exciting, dark and unheard.

For me creating sound has always felt intimate, and started with exchanging mixtapes and playing mini synths in weird places. My sound works have always felt like soundtracks to the location I’m in; my mood and what's happening in my world. It’s been a way to express things happening in my head and my heart. Creating live scored soundscapes to friends swimming in a submerged quarry or listening to distorted delays reverberating off the wet, dusty walls inside a bridge room, while the 6PM7 freight train rattles your surroundings for 3 minutes—place has always been important along with the friends who are experiencing it with you.

I think the DIY experiemental scene is really interesting—where people are happy to listen to harsh noise for one set, unsettling classical music teamed with distortion pedals the next, then dance into the night with a curated mix of bent/squashed together dance tracks. Noise in my experience across so-called Australia and South East Asia, is often paired with punk and hiphop music. Communities share space and have similar ideologies. The performances always have a sense of urgency, poignant expressionism and reflect what's happening personally and globally.

Noise shows have their own timings, sometimes to a room full or not so full of people or under a bridge somewhere, for example. The audience become participants to a potential one time only scenario, with that exact performance to only be recalled/documented by word of mouth/ a dusty old USB or some shitty distorted phone footage. It’s very exciting.

I love our little strange music community and am excited to be able to bring together these artists for this project. One that celebrates deep listening. Each of the invited artists are really pushing their works into unknown and exciting territories. I am most inspired by them in what they are making, sharing and where they are playing their works. Each artist is different and unique in their own right and I invite audiences to take the time to listen to the works they’ve created. I encourage you to try and see the artists play IRL as their performances take on different forms when viewed in person.

I don’t actually know how you can find these artists, but keep your eyes peeled for a pasted-up poster while walking around your neighbourhood or follow that loud music trail you can hear in some random park or drain on the weekend. You just might find them there.

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