Hi my name is Richard and I have been the Director /Producer/Curator of the annual SoundOut Festival, going on 17 years in 2026. Unfortunately we were not successful in raising any grant funding for the coming festival [January 30th - 1st February 2026] and that is why we have turned to crowd funding to help us make it over-the-line to produce the festival and to host our always wonderful international music guests. SoundOut is an annual International festival of Free improvisation, Free Jazz and Experimental Music’s and Arts, held at the Drill Hall Gallery ANU Canberra Australia. Due to being unsuccessful in our grant applications for the coming year we are running this campaign to ensure the festival continues to realise it’s vision of bringing innovative music to the South-East Australia. We are now coming to it’s 17th year as one of the gateway exploratory music-art events providing a much-needed avenue for brilliant musical endeavors from around the world and Australia. We see our role as fostering continued creative collaborations between some of the best Artists from around the world and our own brilliant Australian artists and showcasing these to the community. In 2026 we have over 26 Artists from Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland and the UK that will combine, cross-fertilize, and move sound mountains to uplift your ears and replenish the mind during the 3-day event, which spans 17 + hrs of music, over 24 sets.
4 sessions
Session 1. Fri 30th 7pm - 11:30
Session 2. Sat 31st 1pm - 5
Session 3. Sat 31st 7pm - 11:30
Session 4. Sun 1st 1pm - 5
We need to remain strong in our resolve to continue the festival as it is vital part of the Australian cultural landscape otherwise we face becoming an “endangered cultural species”.
We are running this Gofundme campaign to raise desperately needed funds to cover costs of Artist fees, some travel, accommodation, food, and production and advertising costs.
SoundOut will be hosted on the Friday 30th January – 1st February 2026 and thus we are endeavoring to raise the funds by late January to be ensured of a successful festival. Your generous support will mean the difference between survival and closure of the festival and cannot be underestimated. It would help us through another year as we try to ensure greater sustainability. It also means that artists have the opportunity to be heard and supported in a positive fruitful artistic environment, to showcase their skill and innovation to the broader community and be heard by their peers from around the world. On a personal level this support would mean the absolute world to me. I have been director/producer/curator of this festival for going on 17 years and though we have occasionally been lucky with funding we have not been that fortunate this year. I would personally fund the festival but work part-time in three jobs that as an Artist just pays the bills and thus it would take a HUGE weight off my shoulders to be able to fund this festival without being put into debt.
Please support the SoundOut festival!
You can give as much or as little as you can afford, as all is much appreciated and will make a difference!
Simply Donate
Program coming soon
SoundOut 2026 Artist List
Benjamin Shannon: drummer, Brisbane
Bruce Spink: guitar, Canberra
Charles Martin: electronics, Canberra
Christoph Gallio: alto saxophone , Switzerland
Dylan Van Der Schyff: drummer, Naarm
Gariella Hill: tenor sax, Sydney
Jamie Lambert: guitar,/violin/cello, Canberra
Jean-Philippe Gross: no-input mixer/electronics, France
Jesse Twomey: percussion/guitar, Canberra
Karim Camprovin Sanchez: vocals, Canberra
Marc Ducret: guitar, France
Miroslav Bukovsky: trumpet, Canberra
Melanie Herbert: viola, Sydney
Nicci Haynes: multi-media live drawing Artist, Canberra
Nikki Heywood: vocals Sydney
Paul Wong: guitar, Canberra
Phil Durrant: electronics / mandolin, UK
Peter Bruun: drummer, Denmark
Rhys Butler: saxophonist, Canberra
Richard Johnson: wind multi-instrumentalist, Canberra
Romy Caen: harmonium/objects/electronics, Sydney
Samuel Blaser: trombone, Switzerland
Sebastien Field: guitar/electronics, Canberra
Sophie Min: piano, Canberra/Meajin
Tom Fell: saxophone, Canberra
possibles: tbc
Ben Carey: electronics, Sydney
Laura Altman: clarinet and object’s electronic, Sydney
Niran Dasika: trumpet/electronics, Narrm.
Artist Profiles:
Benjamin Shannon: drums, Brisbane
Benjamin is making a serious indent into the Australian and International music scene as a percussionist, educator, curator and composer. Hailing from Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, Ben began lessons under the guidance of Luke Williams (Dead Letter Circus) at age 10 and has studied with world renowned percussionists Mark Guiliana, Dave Elitch, Ian Chang, Jeff Friedl, Danny Heifitz, Tim Firth, Andrew Gander, Simon Barker, John Parker and Paul Hudson just to name a few. He has performed alongside Pulitzer, ARIA and Grammy award winning artists in Raven Chacon, Jane Sibbery, Scott Tinkler, Eiichi Hayashi,Robin Eubanks, Francois Salque, Yitzhak Yedid, Kristin Berardi, Toby Wren, COG, sleepmakeswaves, The Contortionist, Leprous, Voyager, The Black Sorrows, and Troy Cassar-Daley to summarise an extensive list. His compositions have received critical acclaim (Bell Award’s Young Jazz Award Finalist 2019, Queensland Music Awards Finalist 2020, 2022, 2024, Art Music Awards 2022, 2023) and his creative projects have received support from Creative Australia, Arts Queensland and Moreton Bay Regional Council. Ben was also nominated for the Freedman Jazz Award in 2020 and 2023. Original projects of Ben’s include Milton Man Gogh, Shamin, Kodiak Empire, Brisbane Conduction Orchestra, Dropbear Lodge, Big Dead, Milk Buttons and more. Since 2013 he has released over 20 albums and toured nationally and internationally with a multitude of groups.
Bruce Spink: guitar, Canberra
Bruce’s improvisation developed modally in the nineteen eighties. Then with the inspiration of Derek Bailey and many others he continued to explore the expressive possibilities of the guitar. Bruce lived in rural Victoria for many years where he wrote numerous musical plays. For the past two and a half years he has played with what began as the Ainslie Music Club where his focus has been integrating the timbral possibilities of acoustic guitars amongst the diverse voices.
Charles Martin: electronics, Canberra
Charles Martin a computer scientist specialising in music technology, musical AI and human-computer interaction. He develops musical apps such as MicroJam, and PhaseRings, researches creative AI, and performs music with Ensemble Metatone and Andromeda is Coming. At the ANU, Charles leads research into intelligent musical instruments. His lab’s focus is on developing new intelligent instruments, performing new music with them, and bringing them to a broad audience of musicians and performers. Charles was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oslo in the Engineering Prediction and Embodied Cognition (EPEC) project and the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time, and Motion from 2016–2019 where he developed new ways to predict musical intentions and performances in smartphone apps and embedded devices. Charles has a background in mathematics, computing, and music performance and has a classical percussion playing alter-ego.
Christoph Gallio: alto saxophone, Switzerland
Christoph Gallio was born in 1957 and lives in Baden, Switzerland. He began playing the soprano saxophone as a self-taught artist at the age of 19. He studied saxophone with Iwan Roth at the Basel Conservatory and music with Steve Lacy in Paris. He holds an MA in Transdisciplinarity from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). He received the City of Basel's Performance Art Prize in 1987, the Berlin Atelier in 2009, a grant from the Aargau Board of Trustees in 2012, and the Buenos Aires Atelier (SKK) from the City of Baden in 2017. He leads the bands DAY & TAXI (with Silvan Jeger and Gerry Hemingway) and ROSEN FÜR ALLE (with Jan Roder and Oliver Steidle). He has a long-standing collaboration with visual artist Beat Streuli. Their most recent joint project is the interdisciplinary performance ROAD WORKS (with Raphael Loher, Ernst Thoma, Dominique Girod, and Nicolas Stocker). Since 1977 Christoph Gallio has played and plays with Irene Schweizer, Irene Aebi, Urs Voerkel, Peter K. Frey, Daniel Studer, Günter Müller, Stephan Wittwer, Norbert Möslang, Urs Leimgruber, Ernst Thoma, Peter Kowald, Alfred Zimmerlin, Matthew Ostrowski, Dominique Girod, Hans Koch, Werner Lüdi, Urs Blöchlinger, Erhard Hirt, Dieter Ulrich, Fred Frith, Phil Minton, John Russel, Lindsay L. Cooper, Peter Schärli, Bernhard Bamert, Takashi Kazamaki, Yoshiaki Onnyk Kinno, Samm Bennett, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Kazutoki Umezu, Tetsu Saitoh, William Parker, Rashied Ali, Christian Wolfarth, Christian Weber, Martin Lorenz, Hans-Christian Sarnau, Lara Stanic, Olaf Rupp, Kazumi, Helmut Erler, Hans Benda, Sven Åke Johansson, Andrea Neumann, Julian Sartorius, Roger Turner, Paula Shocron, Pablo Diaz, Luis Conde, Maecelo von Schultz, Raphael Loher, and Nicolas Stocker. He has performed solos and performed with dancers Christine Brodbeck, Yvonne Meier, Tomiko Takai, Franz Frautschi, and Hideto Heshiki. He has also collaborated with artists Alex Silber, Eric Hattan, and writer Kurt Aebli, among others. Since 1986, Gallio has composed for himself, his bands, and others. He has performed concerts and tours at home and abroad. He has released various recordings.
Dylan van der Schyff: drummer Narrm/ Canada
Dylan is an improvising percussionist based in Melbourne, Australia. He collaborates with Australian artists such as Helen Svoboda and Andrew Saragossi (Looseleaf), Paul Williamson, Jess Green, Sandy Evans, and the ensemble Open Thread. Dylan has toured extensively in North America and Europe, performing and recording with George Lewis, John Butcher, Paul Rutherford, Dave Douglas, Ken Vandermark, Robin Holcomb, Torsten Muller, Wayne Horvitz, Rob Mazurek, Marilyn Crispell, Joelle Leandre, Peggy Lee, and John Zorn among many others. He teaches at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where he heads the honours and graduate programs in improvisation. https://dylanvanderschyff.bandcamp.com/music
Gariella Hall: tenor saxophone Sydney
Gabriella Hill is a Sydney/Eora based saxophonist, clarinetist, improviser and composer, currently in her 3rd year of studying jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium. Current ensembles/projects include Double Trouble (with Aidan Wong, Alex Tucker, Daniel Raymond), Hayley Chan Trio (with Uma Volkmer, Hayley Chan), Mosaic Jazz Collective (as guest artist), Gabriella Hill Trio (with Alex Tucker, Jaqcues Emery), Splinter Orchestra.
Jamie Lambert: Guitar,/violin/cello, Canberra
Jamie is a guitarist who has recently moved from Sydney. Jamie became involved in free improvisation through the Mt Ainslie Music Club, a free improvisation group based in Canberra, and has since performed as part of the Noise Floor ensemble. Jamie employs a non-idiomatical style of playing and seeks to explore the timbral possibilities of the electric guitar through the use of prepared guitar and effects.
Jean-Philippe Gross: no-input mixer/electronics, France
Improviser and composer Jean-Philippe Gross taught himself music, first playing the drums before turning to electronic tools in the early 2000s. In concert, he plays with a dedicated acoustic feedback (no input mixing) device. In the studio, he continues his research using a Serge modular and analog synthesizer (Serge modular system).
At the crossroads of electronic and instrumental music, Jean-Philippe Gross develops a physical relationship with sound by playing with ruptures and acoustic phenomena. Never confined to any systematism, he allows himself to go to extremes to take advantage of a wide range of possibilities and pays particular attention to timbre, grain, and sound quality, even rough. He has composed music for dance, performances, and for contemporary ensembles such as the Dedalus ensemble.
In concert, he collaborates with Marc Baron, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Clare Cooper (Nevers), Stéphane Garin … He works for dance with the choreographer Camille Mutel. In 2019, he created the Eich label.
Karim Camprovin Sanchez: vocals, Canberra
Karim is a Venezuelan vocalist and improviser based in Canberra. Classically trained in Caracas, she studied at the Conservatory and completed a Bachelor of Arts (Music) at the Central University of Venezuela. She explores free improvisation, experimental music, and indigenous traditions. Her voice flirts with playfulness as it weaves through diverse sounds, textures, and sonic landscapes. Influenced by Latin American, Caribbean, jazz, and alternative music, Karim has performed genres ranging from boleros and salsa to fado and Sephardic music. Her passion for improvisation deepened through postgraduate music therapy studies and experimental theatre work in Venezuela. She later studied gamelan and Javanese vocal music (Sindhenan) in Indonesia, performing in Wayang Kulit shadow puppet theatre. Since moving to Australia in 2019, she has taught music to people with disabilities at the Ainslie Arts Centre and continued her improvisational work through collaborations, including performances with the Mount Ainslie Music Club and as a featured artist at the 2025 Sound Out Festival.
Marc Ducret: guitar, France
Marc Ducret was born in Paris, France in 1957, and began his professional career as a self-taught musician in 1975, playing with dance bands, folklore groups and singers and doing a lot of studio work. Interested in a very wide range of styles and instruments (acoustic and electric 12-string guitars, oud, fretless and baritone guitars), Ducret was a member of the first National Jazz Orchestra in France in 1986, and also led his own trio which gave many concerts and performed in numerous festivals in France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Africa, India, and Japan. Ducret also performed with Larry Schneider, David Friedmann, Michel Portal, Joachim Kuhn, Franco Ambrosetti, Didier Lockwood, Eric Barret, Miroslav Vitous, Enrico Rava, Adam Nussbaum, Django Bates, David Sanborn, Joey Baron, Michel Godard and others. Since 1991, his collaboration with saxophonist Tim Berne has made Ducret one of the few European musicians regularly playing overseas. Frequently invited to be a guest soloist by groups, composers and radio programs in Germany, he created his own tentet "Seven Songs," exploring the music of the '60s with a very personal touch, and plays regularly with Louis Sclavis and Dominique Pifarely's Acoustic Quartet. He has also recently collaborated Samuel Blaser Trio with Peter Bruhn.
Melanie Herbert: viola, Sydney
Melanie creates site specific multi speaker compositions. Using manipulated field recordings and instrumental improvisations she fits her installations, like a glove, to space and time. As a violinist Melanie's playing is naive - she refuses to know the instrument in a systematic way, instead developing her own unique relationship to the violin by freely exploring and improvising with it - largely within Splinter Orchestra since 2011. https://melanieherbert.net
Miroslav Bukovsky: trumpet, Canberra
Miro is a distinguished jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger and educator. He spent 6 years in Conservatorium classical studies in Czechoslovakia and moved to Australia in 1968. Studied at the Sydney Conservatorium Jazz Studies becoming a member of faculty; 1981-82 Australia Council funded study in USA, New York and Indiana University; 1999 Commenced full time teaching position at the Canberra School of Music (later ANU School of Music), teaching trumpet, improvisation, composition, arranging and ensemble performance. 2003-2004 Head of Jazz Department at, ANU School of Music, and has continued limited teaching at ANU School of Music, as a Distinguished Artist in Residence since. https://mirorecords.bandcamp.com/
Nicci Haynes: multi-media live drawing Artist, Canberra
Live drawing performances in collaboration with assorted with dancers, musicians and poets has become a significant component of Nicci Haynes’s practice, events at which experimental languages spontaneously emerge between dance, music/sound, visual art/projection. Acts of instantaneous composition and inventive improvisations lead to journeys of wild immersion. Improvisation and inventiveness is the common element throughout a diverse art practice that includes print, drawing, mad-scientist installations and experimental film and sound. Nicci lives and works on unceded country of Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples.
Nikki Heywood: voice/txt/performance artist, Sydney
Nikki is a Sydney based interdisciplinary artist works across dance, performance, sound, writing & live art focused on embodiment & challenging political & interpersonal themes since 1979. Informed by somatic approaches & improvisational practice her body of work spans solo & collaborative performance & has toured inter/nationally. Her interest in voice encompasses extended vocal techniques, developing expanded experimental sound scores for voice as instrument. She co-curated platforms for improvisation Rushing for the Sloth and Whip It for over a decade. https://youtu.be/fk5TQr4c9JM?si=CW372rxwMgtQiXge
Phil Durrant: electronics/mandolin, UK
Phil is a multi-instrumentalist improviser/composer/sound artist who currently performs solo and group concerts. As a violinist (and member of the Butcher/Russell/ Durrant trio), he was one of the key exponents of the "group voice approach" style of improvised music. In the late 90s, his trio with Radu Malfatti and Thomas Lehn represented a shift to a more “reductionist” approach. Recently, he has been performing solo and duo concerts with Bill Thompson and Gaudenz Badrutt using a semi-modular synth system. He has also recently recorded and performed with Dominic Lash’s quartet which includes Rachel Musson and Steve Noble. As an acoustic or electric mandolinist, he has been performing duos with guitarists Daniel Thompson and Martin Vishnick. He also performs regularly in a trio with Mark Wastell and John Butcher and has many ongoing projects with drummer Emil Karlsen including a trio with Maggie Nicols. Durrant still performs regularly with the acoustic/electronic group Trio Sowari (with Bertrand Denzler and Burkhard Beins) and Mark Wastell’s The SEEN, as well as the international electronic ensemble MIMEO with Keith Rowe, Kaffe Matthews, Thomas Lehn, Rafael Toral a.o. https://youtu.be/DAof6Am-4Rc
Peter Bruun: drummer, Denmark
He started playing drums at the Rythmic Childrens School in Vesterbro in Copenhagen at the age of three. This became a life-long immersion into drums, music and composition. His mother and father are both music lovers and his childhood home there were always instruments and people to play them. I was admitted to the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, at the age of eighteen. After 3 years I discontinued my formal education to travel in India and Brasil and continue to study on my own so mostly self taught. He is an active member of ILK (Independent Lable of København). ILK is a danish collective of musicians who releases music with absolute artistic freedom. He has been playing with the Samuel Blaser trio for a number of years now as well as many other ensembles. https://www.peterbruun.info/
Rhys Butler: saxophonist, Canberra
Rhys has come to know the cities he has lived in through improvised and noise music. The trio Dinner Sock (Stephen Roach (drums), David Keyton (feedback), and Rhys Butler (saxophones)) formed from the weekly Fugue State Sessions in Guanzhou. The group performed with local experimenters such as Yan Jun, Feng Hao and Li Zenghui and collaborated with musicians transiting China such as Uwe Bastiansen (Faust) and Lucas Abela. Despite living in different corners of the world, Dinner Sock has continued to participate in China's experimental music scene and played Beijing's Sally Can't Dance festival and NOIShanghai in 2012. In Santiago, Chile, Rhys participated in events run by Productura Mutante and played in the free-for-all Collective Improvisation NO. Now residing in Canberra, Rhys has been working in a duo with Reuben Ingall (live processing). More recently he has been part of the Psithurism trio with John Porter and Richard Johnson, which have a new release called Lure out with French clarinetist Xavier Charles. See the SoundOut bandcamp and Francois Houle site in the following links: https://soundoutrecordings.bandcamp.com/
Richard Johnson: wind multi-instrumentalist, [festival director] Canberra
Richard performs with the texture of sound on soprano/tenor saxophone and bass clarinet and is experimenting with use of a bass drum with soprano saxophone to create a language of microtonal textural resonance. Also he has been making instruments from conical gourds from PNG, which allow the stripping back of the wind instruments to their most visceral and most sensuous form and allow for the exploration of extended techniques. He has performed at the SoundOut 2010 – 2025 festivals; What is Music Festival, Nownow Festival; the Make it Now performances; also performances with the Brice Glace Ensemble and the 102 Club Orkestra in Grenoble France; “Whip it“ series in Sydney; various Precipice annual Improv workshops hosted by Tony Osbourne as well as hosting local, interstate, and international improvisation nights in Canberra. He has also been a member and performed with Ngesti Budoyo Gamelan Orchestra of the Indonesian Embassy for 18 years untill recently. He is the Director, Curator, Producer and Administrator at SoundOut festivals. As a sound artist he worked with renowned visual Artist Savanhdary Vongpoothorn for the Australia Exhibition at The Casula Power House as well collaborated with conceptual-visual artist Denise Higgins on soundscapes. He has performed with the likes of Jaap Blonk, Jon Rose, Hans Koch, Guylaine Cosseron, Jim Denley, Kim Myhr, Annette Giesreigl, Rodrigo Motoya, Antonio Panda Gianfratti, Thomas Rohrer, Luc Houtkamp, Clayton Thomas, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Yan Jun, Laura Altman, Michael Norris, Evan Dorian, etc. Currently performs with Noise Floor Qrt [Jamie Gifford, Rhys Butler and Rory Villegas]. Has a wind trio with John Porter and Rhys Butler called Psithurism, which has a digital release with the renowned Canadian clarinetist Francois Houle and a new Cd release called Lure on the SoundOut label with Xavier Charles in 2017 SO-003. Also in June 2016 released Cd with Rhys Butler; Guylaine Cosseron and Stephen Roach called Swarm on SoundOut Cd’s SO-001. Lure CD Review. He also has a number of field recording releases available from the SoundOut label catalogue bandcamp site.
http://apraamcos.com.au/news/2015/august/art-music-award-winners/ http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/canberra-experimental-music-wins- apra-award-20150826-gj80c3.html
https://citynews.com.au/2023/experimental-music-festival-hits-new-heights/ https://citynews.com.au/2023/experimental-music-festivals-quiet-but-sensational-finale http://www.freejazzblog.org/2018/06/recent-releases-of-french-clarinetist.html
Romy Caen: harmonium/objects/electronics, Sydney
Romy Caen is an event organiser, studio manager and musician from Sydney. She plays harmonium in the Splinter Orchestra and electronics with musicians such as Melanie Herbert in their duo called Tone Bird. She has performed at the Now Now Festival, the SoundOut Festival, Newcastle Weekender Festival and in other small venues around Sydney since 2008.
Samuel Blaser: trombone, Switzerland
Winner of the 2019 “Prix du Musicien européen” from the Académie du Jazz in Paris , as well as the 2021 Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll (“Rising Star Trombone”), Samuel Blaser is a 21st-century trombonist. Born in 1981 in the town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, he emerged professionally after graduating from conservatory in 2002. During the next five years, he developed associations with the Vienna Art Orchestra and the European Radio Big Band, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, pursued graduate studies at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, State University of New York, and recorded his first album as a leader, the Samuel Blaser Quartet’s 7th Heaven (Between The Lines). After living 16 years abroad in New York and Berlin, he has been back in his hometown since December 2021. The foundations of Blaser’s art are the breadth of his influences, his technical fluency, and the clarity with which he applies these assets. He grew up learning classical and Swiss folk music as well as jazz, and his projects include jazz-informed investigations of operatic, rock, and blues music. He understands that growth is relational and has sought out and sustained relationships with veteran musicians such as Pierre Favre, John Hollenbeck, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ducret, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, and Daniel Humair—each of whom has helped him to develop his own sense of identity. He exercises the full range of the trombone’s possibilities, including fluid melodic statements, emphatic rhythmic punctuations, earthy interjections, and abstract sound effects—all with a clear sense of purpose. He approaches each endeavor as a leader and collaborator with a defined goal in mind and an understanding of what each musical situation requires from him. Blaser’s responsiveness is never more evident than in his solo performances, which use his bold sound to draw out the qualities of both architectural and environmental settings. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced all musicians to suspend touring. However, Blaser’s response illustrated another aspect of his resourcefulness: while he was off the road, he set up a label called Blaser Music that issued 20 albums. He also created a sub-label called SONGS that releases music from other musicians, starting with Russ Lossing. As soon as Europe began to reopen, he returned to the stage playing concerts with his own groups and as a sideman for Michel Portal, Daniel Humair, and Marc Ducret. The Samuel Blaser Trio ( Marc Ducret, guitar ; Peter Brunn, drums) has played together extensively in recent years, developing a kinetic language and an active sense of restrained interplay, with each capable of taking one of the other’s musical ideas and pressing it into action. The shape-shifting trio can march, tumble, groove, simmer or flare up, depending on the needs of the moment.
Sebastien Field: Guitar/electronics, Canberra
Sebastian is a Canberra/Ngunnawal country-based musician whose music has been described “as powerful as it is elegiac” (BMA Magazine) and featuring “widescreen sound worlds” (Cyclic Defrost). With an extensive background in producing and touring original music, Field is also affiliated with the experimental label Provenance Collective. His debut solo album, Picture Stone, showcased his experimental pop sensibilities. In contrast, his sophomore album, Sandcandles, marked a stark departure, moving away from Field’s hallmark songwriting style and ethereal vocals. Instead, it embraced electronic textures, immersive ambience, skittering plastic percussion, and avant-garde vocal production, reminiscent of early 1990s Intelligent Dance Music. Field followed Sandcandles with Prescients EP, further delving into the exploration of ambience, texture, and tone. He is now preparing to release a collection of processed ambient guitar recordings, expected soon. https://sebastianfield.bandcamp.com/
Sophie Minn piano, Brisbane
Sophie is a Korean-Australian pianist, composer, and improviser whose practice merges jazz vocabulary with experimental forms, algorithmic processes, and large-scale ensemble writing. Her work explores the porous borders between composition and improvisation, often navigating atonality, gestural notation, and real-time group interaction. She is the 2023 recipient of the APRA Professional Development Award for Jazz/Improvised Music and a finalist in both the 2024 Art Music Awards and Freedman Jazz Fellowship. Her ensemble projects—ranging from the duo SHAMIN to her 11-piece orchestra album Bellwether—have been presented at major festivals including the Wangaratta and Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festivals. As a soloist, she performed and taught across Germany and Austria, presenting masterclasses and concerts throughout 2025. Her current PhD, Beyond Serialism: Exploring Atonality in Jazz Composition and Improvisation through Algorithmic Performance, investigates the role of compositional systems within improvisational settings. She has participated in international workshops such as the JM Jazz World Orchestra (Europe) and Jazz Port Townsend (USA), and served as Artist in Residence at ABC Jazz, where she curated a month of daily programming and recorded original works. Her first official album, Thanks for the Hands, featuring guitarist James Sherlock, was praised for its delicate beauty and lyrical interaction, with a successful launch at Jazz Music Institute and Jazzlab. In 2018, she presented a solo performance at the Brisbane International Jazz Festival, followed by the release of Solo Vol.1, an all-improvised piano album. Her collaborative project Open with bassist Helen Svoboda and drummer Timothy Green further showcased her innovative approach to improvisation. n 2019, she released Fine Gnaw with her duo project SHAMIN, which was highlighted at several major festivals, including the 2022 Wangaratta Jazz Festival. In 2020, Sophie released the 11-piece orchestra album Bellwether, a significant work blending big band, contemporary jazz, minimalism, and classical chamber music. This was followed by Your Wings, a 7-piece ensemble album recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown, and Intertwined Trees, a duo album with German saxophonist Heinrich von Klein.
Tom Fell: saxophone, Canberra
Tom Fell is a Canberra-based saxophonist with over a decade of experience performing across Australia’s jazz and improvised music scenes. He has performed at major events including the Canberra International Music Festival (2025) in a conceptual collaboration with the French bagpipe quartet Sonnuers, and appeared as guest saxophonist with the ARIA Award-winning band Wanderlust (2024). He has also worked in cross-disciplinary and site-specific contexts, such as Sounds of the Gallery with Sia Ahmad for the National Gallery of Australia (2023). Tom is an alumni of the Australian Art Orchestra’s Creative Music Intensive (2022) and has performed with a wide range of ensembles, including the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Ska Orchestra. He also regularly leads his own jazz group, presenting original compositions and improvised music.
Yichen Wang: electronics + , Canberra
Yichen (逸宸), is a PhD researcher who works at the intersection of music and computer science. My research encompasses new interface for musical expression, augmented reality and the entangled nature of digital music ensemble in Human-Computer Interaction. She has recently been working the OP-1 controller from teenage-engineering and producing some fascinating sound material and performances.
More list TBC:
Ben Carey: electronics, Sydney
Benjamin Carey is a Sydney-based composer, improviser and educator, and Senior Lecturer in Composition and Music Technology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.Ben makes electronic music using the modular synthesiser, develops interactive music software and creates audio-visual works. Ben’s work is concerned with musical interactivity, generativity and the delicate dance between human and machine agencies in composition and performance. Ben has released ten albums, including METASTABILITY (2023), Hypertelic (2021) and ANTIMATTER (2019), and has collaborated with a variety of artists including Sonya Holowell, JACK Quartet, Sydney Chamber Opera, ELISION ensemble and others. He publishes traditional research outputs on electronic music, modular synthesis and the philosophy of technology in a variety of publications. His creative work has been performed and exhibited internationally at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music (UK), Sydney Festival (Australia), IRCAM Live (France), VIVID Sydney (Australia), and elsewhere. In2022/23 Ben was awarded with a Univeristy of Sydney SOAR Prize to support his research and creative work. https://bencarey.bandcamp.com/
Niran Dasika: trumpet/electronics, Narrm.
Niran Dasika is a trumpeter, improvisor, and composer based in Melbourne, Australia whose work encompasses jazz, free improvisation, and electronic music. Niran leads an active performing career around Australia and across Japan where he lived for several years. He has released eight albums as a band leader, including the latest ‘Life Forms’ (2025). Niran’s live solo performances augment his distinctive trumpet sound with live sampling and processing to create mesmeric, hypnotic patterns underneath his lyrical trumpet playing. Niran’s electronic music releases “Endless Spring, Infinite Summer” and “Assorted Drone Music Vol. 1-3” have explored an expanding sonic world of synthesisers, drum machines and lo-fi electronica. Outside of his music practice, Niran works as a music educator, mental health worker and disability support worker. Niran’s work has been recognised by a number of awards including: 2017 National Jazz Awards - 2nd Place; 2019 Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year – winner; 2019 APRA AMCOS Professional Development Award – winner; 2020 Freedman Jazz Fellowship - finalist