13 – 23 May
Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre
Tickets and More info

Following the international success of their duet Slip, Rebecca Jensen and Aviva Endean return with Slop, a visceral sequel that plunges into a submerged, murky world of sound and movement. If Slip was about falling out of sync with reality, Slop revels in the messy aftermath. The overspill.  

“Jensen and Endean are a remarkable duo” – Paul Neeson, Arts Wednesday  

“riveting, engrossing and curiously moving” – Michael Brindley, Stage Whispers (on Slip)  

Following the international success of their duet Slip, Rebecca Jensen and Aviva Endean return with Slop, a visceral sequel that plunges into a submerged, murky world of sound and movement. If Slip was about falling out of sync with reality, Slop revels in the messy aftermath. The overspill.  

Conjuring an unstable, gurgling terrain of bodies and sound, Slop wades through a world saturated by digital excess and environmental precarity. A reckoning with our present moment and a confrontation with the invisible systems that ensnare us, Slop asks the question: which entanglements do we sever, and which do we trust? 

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

MAPS available now on ROOM40 Bandcamp. 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. 

May 9
Doors 7:30, sounds from 8pm
$15/20
649 Plenty Road Preston
More info and booking

The next EXCESS NOISE night which I am curating at Extrasensory Space is coming up on May 9th featuring three sets of exploratory sounds from ADAM GOTTLIEB, IRAN SANADZADEH and MAKING OUT ENSEMBLE.

RM4232 Driftwood Maps

Nick Ashwood: Pump Organ, Guitars, Electronics
Aviva Endean: Pump Organ, Clarinets, Electronics

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.

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.

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!)

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.

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.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. 

DRIFTWOOD : MAPS (Room40) RELEASE TOUR 2026

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

MAY 31 6:30
St John’s Anglican Church cnr Victoria & Melville Rd Brunswick.
Tickets and More info

Aviva Endean & Josten Myburgh are an experimental duo based between Boorloo and Naarm whose music evokes lullaby and mirage. They use bass clarinet & alto saxophone, playing hushed acoustic sounds, and suspending moments using electronic sustain pedals. Their sounds weave together in subtle acts of hiding, surfacing, echoing and haunting.

Attention people with kids aged 5-12! 

Sonic Labyrinth is now open until June 2026! This interactive sound work was developed more than 5 years ago with Justin Marshall and kids at Art Play, and it’s now been reimagined it as a drop in space for the Art Play gallery.

It’s free and open Thursday-Sunday 10-4. 

Sonic Labyrinth emerges out of a love for seeing people of all ages discover a playful curiosity with sound. The mysterious objects that fill the room are not conventional musical instruments, and require the creativity of the audience to discover how to make them sing. Put on some headphones and hear sounds on the edge of perception…vibrations heard through bone conduction, gurgles of underwater pressure systems, or wind currents piped directly into your ears. Crawl inside a giant spring drum and be immersed in intergalactic bass frequencies, make your way through the sonic web (with or without making a sound!) and hear your voice reflected in the infinity box of mirrors.

CREDITS:
Lead artist: Aviva Endean
Concept collaborator: Justin Marshall
Projection design: Bob Jarvis 
Hear Muff fabrication: Tahl Swieca
With thanks to 2018-19 collaborators Dan Witton, Afsaneh Torabi, Bronwyn Pringle and Dale Gorfinkel
Photos: Darren Gill
Video: NON studio

September 11 2026
The Neilson, ACO On The Pier
More info and booking

The oldest music tradition in the world. The very best of contemporary sound.

Hand to Earth is an astonishing ensemble that brings Yolŋu song cycles – a tradition kept by songmen Daniel Wilfred and David Wilfred – into conversation with bold contemporary approaches to music making. Unbound by genre, time, or tradition, Hand to Earth also features multi-instrumentalists Sunny Kim (voice and percussion), Peter Knight (trumpet, electronics, synthesiser) and Aviva Endean (clarinets, winds, electronics). This eclectic quintet has an extraordinary rapport.

Richard Tognetti saw Hand to Earth play at the Barbican in 2025 and instantly knew he had to work with them. This intimate recital marks the start of a special relationship. The first half of the concert is a showcase of Hand to Earth’s hypnotic, elemental sound, as the musicians fuse Daniel and David’s ancient songs – sung in the Wägilak language – with influences from minimalism, jazz, and electronica. The second half premieres new settings of several pieces from Hand to Earth’s three albums, created for the group alongside a quartet of ACO musicians led by Richard Tognetti on violin.

This will be a musical evening of power and grace, which will draw you into a sound world that feels ancient and immediate all at once.

ARTISTS 

Daniel Wilfred voice, bilma
David Wilfred yidaki, voice
Sunny Kim voice percussion
Peter Knight trumpet, electronics, synthesiser
Aviva Endean clarinets, winds, electronics
Richard Tognetti violin
Satu Vänskä violin
Stefanie Farrands viola
Julian Thompson cello 

BUNDANON MUSEUM Saturday 6 June 3pm
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Sunday 7 June 3pm

Transcending cultural boundaries through bold re-imaginings of musical traditions, Water Song promises something entirely new; a sonically mesmerising collaboration inspired by water.

Water Song invites listeners to honour the stories water holds and the deep bonds it creates across time, space, and cultures. This rare cross-cultural collaboration is led by acclaimed South Korean vocalist Sunny Kim and composed by Ensemble Ochaye. The instrumentation is unique and evocative, featuring Aviva Endean (clarinets), Gelareh Pour (kamancheh, vocals), Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng) and Zoë Barry (cello). Each artist reshapes her instrument into a voice entirely her own, weaving tradition with fearless experimentation.

“Sunny Kim’s voice sings, murmurs, cajoles, and whispers with intelligence, clarity, and beauty… she has more than enough chops to run away with the show” – The Australian

Supported by UKARIA Cultural Centre and Creative Australia. Commissioned by Perth Festival, Adelaide Festival, Asia TOPA and Melbourne Recital Centre.

March 13 Lights On- Opening Event
White Bay Power Station
7-11pm
More info and booking

Lights On is the biggest celebration of art and music in 2026, transforming White Bay Power Station into Sydney’s focal point. Marking the opening of 25th Biennale of Sydney, Lights On is the first opportunity to experience the expansive array of visual art curated by 25th edition Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi, alongside an invigorating and dynamic array of cutting-edge contemporary music performances throughout the monolithic post-industrial site. A sensitive response to the curatorial frame of Rememory, the music program spans genres, geographies and histories, cohered in dialogue with the surrounding work. Critically acclaimed Baltimore singer-songwriter and producer Nourished By Time (USA) will headline in a Sydney exclusive, alongside performances by world-leading First Nations experimental ensemble Hand to Earth (AUS), DJ, producer and Moor Mother-collabator DJ Haram (USA) ghosted R&B vocalist Niecy Blues (USA). 

At sundown, Yolŋu songs will ring throughout the cavernous chamber of the Turbine Hall. Hand to Earth, a world-leading First Nations experimental project centred around song keepers Daniel and David Wilfred, will recontextualise their 40,000-year-old song tradition in a resolutely contemporary setting with Korean-born vocalist, Sunny Kim, trumpet and electronics maestro, Peter Knight, and woodwind virtuoso Aviva Endean. Knight writes, “We each have our own relationship to this place, its difficult history, its contended present, its clouded future. This music is perhaps a way of thinking through this, written in the scribble of electronics, in the sighs of the clarinet and trumpet, in the broad brush strokes of the yidaki, and the snap of the bilma.” Having recently completed an international tour, including a standout performance with Shabaka at the Barbican Centre in London, this one-of-a-kind cross-cultural collaboration is not to be missed — arrive early.

Sharing a practice grounded in negotiations with place and history, reverie and return, South Carolinian vocalist-producer Niecy Blues will bring her layered, emotive devotionals to White Bay. In her Australian premiere, Niecy Blues’ gospel-inspired vocals will create sacred and reverent atmospheres, set against enveloping and intoxicating downtempo soundscape of keys, guitar, bass, synth and field recordings. Blurring and abstracting vignettes of the religious music of her Oklahonanan upbringing at every turn, Niecy Blues makes music that exists at the juncture of ambient, dream pop and R&B.

Later, DJ Haram, Brooklyn-based producer and DJ will awaken the Chimney Yard with an invigorating set of experimental, bass and club music, with Middle Eastern instrumentation, paying homage to her Circassian and Syrian heritage, readying the dancefloor for post-R&B sensation and Lights On headliner Nourished by Time. The project of Baltimore artist, Marcus Brown, will be making its Australian debut on the back of recently released album The Passionate Ones, a competitive candidate for album of the year amongst record collectors and music critics. His emotionally charged blend of post-punk, R&B, and experimental pop explores love, labor, and modern disillusionment, perfectly balancing ennui with a sense of triumphant catharsis. His breakout album Erotic Probiotic 2 (2023) earned Pitchfork’s Best New Music and topped year-end lists, followed by the acclaimed Catching Chickens EP (2024). A Metamodernist voice of soulful subversion, Brown has collaborated with Yaeji, Dry Cleaning, and Metronomy, and sold-out headline shows across the US and UK.

Closing out the night against the towering smokestacks, Afro-Brazillian collective INBRAZA BAILE will ignite the dancefloor with baile funk rhythms—a genre of dance music first incubated in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro before informing club cultures globally. For Lights On, INBRAZA are taking this music back into the hands of the Brazilian diaspora, demonstrating that this vital form of dance music is truly alive in Sydney. With exceptional Western Sydney-based selector and FBi Radio’s Mi Gente host Maz at the helm, dancers are in for a roaring conclusion to the night.

Lights On will also feature a limited presentation of one of the 25th Biennale’s flagship performance works, Joe Namy’s Automobile. This love letter to auto-culture sees Namy connect with local car modification enthusiasts, bringing together a host of cars with kitted-out sound systems for a public activation in which the cars are joined in a circle to create the PA for a celebration of sound, music and community.

Tickets on sale now.

Mainstage and Turbine Hall music programming guest curated by Josh Milch.

Wednesday 11 March 2026
6:30pm & 8:15pm

FREE by Ballot (enter here)
More info

Listen to Ŋurru Wäŋa

In Hand to Earth, Yolŋu song keepers Daniel and David Wilfred recontextualise their 40,000 year old song tradition in a resolutely contemporary setting with Korean-born vocalist Sunny Kim, trumpet and electronics maestro Peter Knight, and woodwind virtuoso Aviva Endean.

Hand to Earth, has quickly developed an international reputation as one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary music ensembles winning international praise and a slew of awards. The quintet’s third album, Ŋurru Wäŋa, produced by ROOM40 boss Lawrence English, and Peter Knight, has just been released accompanied by a UK Europe tour which saw the band collaborate with British superstar, SHABAKA, for performances including the Barbican Centre London, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, and De Singel Antwerp with Sami singer/composer, Ánnámáret.

Daniel sings in language, and is the keeper of Yolngu Manikay (songs) from North East Arnhem Land that can be traced back for over 40,000 years. His is the oldest continuously practised music tradition in the world. Sunny sings in English and Korean intoning gestures that invoke raw elemental forces. Together they sing of the stars, of fire, and of the cooling rain against the drone of David Wilfred’s didgeridoo and atmospheres created by Peter Knight and Aviva Endean who draw on the minimalism of Brian Eno and Jon Hassell to create a setting for these beautifully contrasting voices.