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 

A visceral and hypnotic experience, Mimpi explores the intersection of experimental music, Javanese song and ritualistic dance. 

2-6 December 2026 Tickets and More info

A small transaction fee will be charged per order.  

We warmly invite you to join us for Everflow, the official closing event of Birrarung Riverfest 2026. Everflow is an expansive half day program integrating music performances, sound-sculptural and video installations, Deep Listening workshops and canoe paddles. Join us for part or all of the closing event at Collingwood Children’s Farm. 

Driftwood are playing an afternoon show tomorrow! ‘Microtonal Fuzz’ Saturday 22nd at @_cactusroom! It should be a great way to spend the afternoon. We’re playing alongside two new duos featuring microtonal guitarist @alecilyine in collaboration with the legendary @evelynidamorris (drums) and @polyvarghese (slide guitar)
Please come along and hang out!
@kcin_doowhsa

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  FREE show
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 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

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