RM4232 Driftwood Maps
Nick Ashwood: Pump Organ, Guitars, Electronics
Aviva Endean: Pump Organ, Clarinets, Electronics
Rockerilla
“Lush harmonic combinations , which elevate a combination of experimental languages to the practice of electro acoustic mysticism”
Following our 2024 self-titled release, Nick and I were compelled to make another record, expanding on the distinctive sound world we have found as the duo Driftwood.
Chainlink DLK
“Together they have discovered something increasingly rare: a duo whose individual personalities remain distinct while gradually dissolving into a genuinely shared voice…Folk-like melodic fragments surface briefly before dissolving back into shimmering harmonic fields, suggesting memories that remain emotionally vivid even after their details have faded. It is music that understands nostalgia without becoming nostalgic, a distinction easier to appreciate than to achieve.” 4.5 stars
Grounded in the unique instrumentation of two microtonally re-tuned pump organs, alongside clarinets and guitars, the sonic landscape of Driftwood has become a welcoming place for us to inhabit together. The distinctive characteristics of these instruments, as well as the challenge of playing multiple instruments simultaneously, have become a frame we’ve leaned into more and more, trusting the vitality of their combined resonance to lead us further into uncharted paths of improvisation.
Blowup
“A minimal calm and refined flow”
For our second album, we wanted to incorporate additional elements from each of our solo practices into our sound: modular synth, effects pedals, electric guitar and contact mic’s (because playing two instruments at the same time wasn’t enough for us!)
percorsimusicali
Maps sounds and acts like a meditative sonic ritual with a powerful, accumulative impact that allows the listener to experience time and space as liquid, psychedelic dimensions
In ‘Maps’, electronics are subtly worked back into the original improvisations, saturating the live instrumentation with bass undertones and signal processing, pushing the sound into more otherworldly realms.
feltthatreviews
“It is a journey into a realm of sensations that is both rare and impossible to imagine if it wasn’t for Nick’s and Aviva’s musical minds. Please play on repeat”
Sometimes the pieces hint toward song-like forms, with repetitive guitar ostinatos lulling the music to the edge of familiarity, while other times the drones and harmonies blur, creating the ground from which glimpses of folk-like melodies surface, as if from a long-forgotten dream.
The Slow Music Movement
“This Driftwood album is a serious winner. The progression from the debut is real and fingers crossed, the project will run and run, it could just be one of those rare beasts – a cultured ambient project that you’d actually like to see live.”
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
DRIFTWOOD : MAPS (Room40) RELEASE TOUR 202
30/05 MELBOURNE / NAARM
Eastmint (with Warm Currency, Bhairavi Raman and Nanthesh SIvarajah)
03/06 CASTLEMAINE / DJA DJA WURRUNG
Jibber Jabber Sound Club (with Jacques Soddell, Ehsan Gelsi)
17/06 SYDNEY / GADIGAL
Eight O’Clock Sharp @ 280A King St Newtown (with Runa Cara)
18/06 SYDNEY / GADIGAL
SIMA at The Rocks
19/06 KATOOMBA / GUNGUNGURRA / DHARUG
The Little Lost Bookshop
BIO
Driftwood is the duo project of Naarm-based experimental musicians Nick Ashwood and Aviva Endean. Performing face to face, with back to back organs, Driftwood meets in a microtonal, buzzing, blurring landscape. Their unique instrumental line up features two re-tuned antique pump organs, which create a resonant backdrop for their primary instruments of clarinets (Aviva) and guitars (Nick), complemented by modular synths and electronics. Their slowly evolving music draws influence from minimalist, drone and folk traditions to create a generous and shimmering sound, inspiring a hypnotic and transformational quality of listening in their audiences, who are momentarily immersed in this harmonic expanse.
Nick and Aviva met as two prominent members of the Naarm/Melbourne experimental and improvised music scene. In Driftwood their two distinctive artistic voices come together to create music which is not about virtuosity or individuality, but a joyous and open form of playing which is a reflection of the music communities that the two artists have been immersed in for over a decade.
Recorded by Driftwood at Punctum ICU on Dja Dja Wurrung country, Castlemaine, and Wurundjeri country, Naarm/ Melbourne, Australia
Mixed and Mastered by Joe Talia
Thanks to Lawrence English, Punctum Inc. Genevieve Fitzgerald, Joe Ferguson, Justin Marshall, Melanie Evans, Tails, Bubble and Baby Cat.
Design by Traianos Pakioufakis
Band photo by Sarah Walker