✍️ Field Notes: Artistic Director Kaylie Melville shares some outtakes from Speak’s tour at the Canberra International Music Festival.
“We’ve had a brilliant and busy week in Canberra! Today while Aaron, Eugene and Rohan were presenting Digital Echoes to a delighted audience, I was busy at Parliament House getting our lovely team of local musicians ready for tomorrow’s Bell Curve performance.
It’s a beautiful time of year to be visiting the city, with clear skies and the trees in their finest autumnal colours.
Along the way we’ve found some moments to enjoy some local sights. In this photo set you’ll spot a late night visit to Lindy Lee’s sparking sculpture Ouroboros, our new favourite Canadian restaurant Caribou, and our feathered neighbours (who deliver a wake up call you definitely won’t miss!).”
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✨Digital Echoes
Saturday 2 May 2026, 10AM
National Film and Sound Archive
✨Bell Curve
Sunday 3 May 2026, 11AM
Australian Parliament House
@the_cimf@kayliemelville
Thank you to everyone who joined us last Sunday at the Chinese Museum for the sold-out premiere of The Ninth Tone. Keep your ears out for the second iteration in 2025 ✨.
📷 all thanks to @darren.gill
THE NINTH TONE
Speculations on a Chinese Australian sonic history
Presented within the oldest continuous Chinese settlement outside of Asia, The Ninth Tone speculates on the legacy of Chinese Music outside of China since the 1800s. First conceived by Leung in 2022, this iterative project uses intonation, materiality, memory, and echo in a hauntological reimagining of Chinese Australian music.
This project problematises simplistic dominant cultural understandings of ‘east meets west’ that ignore significant historic lineages. Chinese culture and music has been present in Australia for almost 200 years, and cross-cultural collaboration is almost as old. Tracing archives, artefacts and familial histories from the Gold Rush to the present day, The Ninth Tone offers an alternative answer to the question of what Chinese Australian music is and can be.
Concept / Composer / Performer: Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung
Artistic Collaborator / Sound Artist / Performer: Sally Ann McIntyre
Performer: Mindy Meng Wang
Performer: Kaylie Melville
Producer: Chelsea Byrne
Lighting: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez
Produced by Speak Percussion
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. This project is supported by the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund.
This project is supported by the City of Melbourne.
@jasminwingyinleung@cegeste@mindy_mengwang@kayliemelville@chelsea.byrne_@giovanna.yate.g@draft_echo@cityofmelbourne@creative.australia@apraamcos@chinesemuse
Here’s a little look behind the scenes of our recent tour and residency at Four Winds.
Co-Artistic Director Kaylie Melville and Assocate Artist Zela Papageorgiou worked alongside community members and local music students to bring Bell Curve to Bermagui, through a series of workshops and performances.
Performance photos by @davey_rogers@draft_echo@fourwindsau@zela_@kayliemelville
Hypnotic synthesism meets rhythmi-tonal exploration. Fia Fiell & Draft Echo perform a new collaborative set alongside Laurence Pike and Babyxxan (dj). Wednesday 16th October at Hope St Radio.
Tix in bio ❤️
Photo of Fia Fiell by @vikavalter@fiafiell@draft_echo@laurenzpike@babyxxan@hopestradio
It's an absolute pleasure to announce a show featuring an artist that has been on the OH radar for almost two decades!
Omniversal Hum presents the dynamic rhythmatist Laurence Pike in celebration of his newest work The Undreamt-of Centre. Tix in bio ❤️
Pike's encyclopedic knowledge of rhythm has inspired audiences for nearly two decades. The Warp Records alumnus will present a hybridised work based on The Undreamt-of Centre released on the prolific 'The Leaf Label' September 6th 2024.
Performance support from Fia Fiell & Draft Echo.
DJ support from Babyxxan
Set times:
Babyxxan 6pm
Fia Fiell 7pm
Laurence Pike 8pm
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The Undreamt-of Centre is the fourth solo album by prolific Australian drummer/composer/producer Laurence Pike, an
evocative, contemporary reimagining of the requiem mass.
The album draws on the sounds of modern classical music, Japanese environmental ambient music, fourth world electronics, free
jazz and the choral traditions of Estonia, with particular influence from Tallinn-based composer Tonu Korvits. Produced in
collaboration with the Vox Sydney Philharmonia Choir, conducted by Pike’s childhood friend, composer Sam Lipman and recorded
in a 19th century Gothic church.
Poster by @organisedisorder@hopestradio@laurenzpike@fiafiell@draft_echo@babyxxan
Tonight at the David Li Sound Gallery, Speak Percussion and Monash University present ✨ Bell Curve ✨
Thursday 31 August 2023, 7:00pm
Friday 1 September 2023, 11:00am
David Li Sound Gallery, The Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts / Progress Festival, Monash University Bell Curve is a spatial, deep-listening performance work for twelve independent bell ringers, composed by Speak Percussion’s Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti. The work dissects the finest details in rhythm, pitch and resonance to unlock the pristine beauty of Victoria’s Federation Handbells. This realisation of the work is augmented by a dramatically changing acoustic space made possible through the Meyer Sound constellation acoustic system, which gives rise to extreme shifts in resonance and the perception of space. Through the use of click track technology, the players move seamlessly in and out of sync from stunningly complex rhythms to perfect unisons. A massed sound event unfolds across the space, a world revealed between the attacks and beating patterns of tuned bell resonance.
🔗 in bio
Featuring Students from the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance
@jasminechen4568@sibumakesmusic@lana.raftopoulos@_jammy.grace.notes_@williamscroggie_@taj_aldeeb@monash_uni /
@monash_school_of_music@monashpac
Video credit: Cobie Orger
Bell Curve behind the scenes! I love this work and the many adventures it’s been on since 2015 - from Arts House to the Grainger Museum, Darebin Speakeasy to a stunning church in Koroit for the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.
This version at Monash Performing Arts Centre is extra special, using the Meyer Constellation System. Using an array of microphones, digital signal processing and world-class loudspeakers, Constellation modifies the reverb and redistributes the sound - so the David Li Sound Gallery can sound like a concert hall, a cathedral, or completely, eerily dry. It’s genuinely amazing.
Performance times:
✨Thursday 31 August 2023, 7:00pm
✨Friday 1 September 2023, 11:00am
📍David Li Sound Gallery, The Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts / Progress Festival, Monash University
🎟️ link in bio
@speakpercussion@monashpac
#speakpercussion #percussion #percussionist #music #musician #performer #performance #acoustics #bell #melbourne #melbournemusic
Watch - Maria Moles' stunning full launch performance for the 'Opening' LP on the 3 year anniversary, Vimeo link in bio.
This bandcamp Friday (today), use discount code 'maria3' for 30% off the vinyl LP at nicemusiclabel.bandcamp.com
Offer is valid until midnight 10/02/23
Filmed and edited by Rohan Goldsmith @draft_echo , photo on panel 1 by @sjk_foto
#nicemusicnonstop #mariamoles #drummer #composer #avantgarde #experimental #experimentalmusic #improv #improvisation #vinyl #records #eastmint
To mark 3 years since the release and launch of Maria Moles' epochal solo percussion debut LP 'Opening' on NM, this Friday we're releasing the never before seen film of her full performance at her LP launch. Hosted at the beautiful @eastmint , the entire performance was filmed and edited by @draft_echo into an astounding live document of Moles embarking on her peak.
A discount code for the 'Opening' vinyl LP for Bandcamp Friday this week will be posted on the morning of, accompanying public access to the full performance film on Vimeo and as an Instagram reel.
(photo on panel 3 by @diiverdan )
#mariamoles #draftecho #lovis #eastmint #percussion #drummer #drumkit #improv #experimentalmusic #avantgarde #composer #nicemusicnonstop
