Under The Wood
Sets of duet recordings featuring Gelareh Pour, Singer, Composer and Persian Kamancheh and Qeychak player, in company with a diverse group of Australian based musicians, aiming to create new cross-cultural works celebrating communal language and transcending genre and place.
Evripides Evripidou
Evripides is one of Australia's leading Bass and guitar players. He is also a producer/recording engineer, composer and arranger.
He has completed courses in classical and jazz music at Melba conservatorium and the Victorian college of Arts. He is currently teaching at Melbourne University and the College of the Arts.
He has composed, performed and recorded music with many Australian and overseas artists, such as James Morrison, Jane Rutter, Joe Chindamo, Tony Gould, Bob Sedegreen, David Hirschfelder, Peter Andre, David Jones, Antonio Sanchez, Virgil Donati, Intervox Music Library, Sony, EMI music production libraries and many more.
He has also released a number of CDs which are distributed around the world.
Evripides has also lived and worked in Greece in the early 90’s where he performed with Greece’s finest musicians and artists such as Pashalis Terzis, Zafiris Melas and many more.
He currently plays in various jazz and contemporary line ups with some of the names mentioned above and also produces film and TV music in his own recording studio.
He has written and arranged music which was used in the TV series 'Neighbours', the Australian film 'Death in Brunswick’, the soundtrack for the Russian winter Olympics channel 10 TV ad, as well as music tracks for various TV shows, Radio shows, Commercials, and Film trailers, around the world.
Sunny Kim
Sunny Kim is a Korea-born vocalist, improviser, composer and educator based in Melbourne, Australia. A two-time winner of Jazz People Magazine’s Reader’s Poll Awards in Best Vocalist category (2012, 2013), Sunny collaborates with contemporary and traditional musicians, dancers, and visual artists to explore expressions regarding identity, spirituality, gender, and cross-disciplinary art forms.
After completing her studies in jazz under the mentorship of Bob Moses, Jerry Bergonzi, Dominique Eade, Charlie Banacos and Frank Carlberg at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Sunny moved to New York in 2005 and began her career as a vocalist. Since then Sunny has performed and recorded internationally with musical luminaries including Roswell Rudd, Ben Monder, Ran Blake, Trevor Dunn, Dave Douglas, Daniel and David Wilfred.
Sunny has released five CD’s as a leader, Android Ascension (2008), Painter’s Eye (2012), The Shining Sea : Live at the Olympus Hall (2014), The Dream of the Earth (2016), and Tribute (2019), two of which have been nominated for Best Jazz Record category for the Korean Music Awards (2015, 2017). She has released several other albums in various projects and collectives such as Prana Trio, Roswell Rudd Quartet, and MadLove.
As an educator, Sunny has facilitated workshops at the Creative Music Intensive (2016-2019, Australia) and the Indigenous Songwriting Workshop at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2019). In addition, she has lectured at Hanyang University, Seoul Institute of the Arts, Dong-Ah Institute for Media and Arts, and Dankuk University. Sunny is currently pursuing her PhD studies and lecturing in Jazz and Improvisation at the University of Melbourne.
Peter Knight
Perpetually curious, composer/trumpeter/sound artist Peter Knight’s practice exists in the spaces between categories, between genres, and between cultures.
As Artistic Director of one of Australia’s leading contemporary music ensembles, the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO), Peter has emerged as a significant international force in contemporary music, initiating commissions, collaborations, and performances with a diverse range of artists including recently, Anthony Braxton (USA), Nicole Lizée (Canada), Amir ElSaffar (USA), Daniel Wilfred (Arnhem Land), Hyelim Kim (UK/Korea), Baliphonics (Sri Lanka), and Alvin Lucier (USA).
He has also performed his works with the Orchestra at major international festivals with recent highlights including, JazzFest Berlin, London Jazz Festival, MONA FOMA (Tasmania), Jazztopad (Poland), Barunga Festival (NT), and Melbourne Festival.
In addition to his role with the AAO, Peter regularly presents his music as both performer and composer in a range of settings; he also composes for contemporary theatre, film, and creates sound installations.
Peter has won numerous awards, nominations, and fellowships. He holds a doctorate from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.
“Solos here were like songlines, not paving superhighways through a compositional infrastructure but leaving faint footprints in a soundscape that evolved as organically as an ecosystem.” Downbeat
“Hard to categorise… hauntingly memorable” The Wire (UK)
“If trumpet is an element then Knight is an alchemist” New York City Jazz Record
Yusuke Akai (aka Ysk)
Yusuke Akai (aka Ysk) was born in Tokyo, 1983, and began playing orchestral percussion at age 5. After a set of brief interests in timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangles, harmonica, trumpet, saxophones, piano and marimba, Ysk discovered guitar at age 12 and never stopped playing. Ysk has lived in Tokyo (Japan), Brisbane, Berlin (Germany), Ardnamurchan (Scotland) and Melbourne while developing his career as a composer, performer, educator and a martial-artist. Although his current obsession in 2020 is equally divided among guitar modular synthesis, drums, sopranino saxphone and capoeira, his quest for dodecaphonic possibilities combined with compelling rhythms of numerous cultures is apparent in his works with Ysk Lightspeed Chamber, Sky Voltage, Superfeather and Clever Austin.
He believes in the relevance between music and martial-arts and has trained Karate, Kendo, Boxing and Capoeira for over 24 years.
Through his adolescent to undergraduate university years, Ysk learned various styles of music with Ken'ichi Ebe (classical guitar), Simon Gardner (rock guitar), James Sherlock (jazz guitar), Jim Denley (free improvisation/sound art), Ken Edie (drums), Shoji Hano (drums) and John Rodgers (composition).
Ysk's works have been performed in various national and international festivals over the world such as DarkMOFO (TAS), Bebersee Musikfestival (Germany), Zomer Fietztour Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Citadelic Jazz Festival (Belgium), Performing Arts Forum (France), Sonoscopia concert series (Portugal), Dutch Impro Academy at Bimhuis (Netherlands), JazzMalak (France), Java Jazz Festival (Indonesia), Shinjuku Pit Inn (Japan), Airegin Yokohama (Japan), Melbourne International Arts Festival, and many more.
Mick Turner
The guitarist and a founding member of internationally acclaimed Dirty Three .
Mick has recorded and performed live with Nick Cave, Catpower, Bonnie Prince Billy , Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett amongst others.
Has has also had a solo career since 1997 having released several albums through Chicago label Drag City , latest being “Don’t tell the driver” in 2014
“Mick Turner is transfixing, mesmerising, enigmatic and brilliant. - Beat magazine
He has had a dynamic and celebrated career as founding member of Dirty Three and simultaneously with his solo project, releasing four LPs on the iconic US label Drag City (Bill Callahan, Joanna Newsom, Ty Segall) with The Australian labelling him “one of Australia’s most distinctive guitarists.”
Brian O'Dwyer
Brian O’Dwyer is an Australian based drummer and music producer.
Working across genres from hard rock and extreme metal, to free-jazz, post rock and folk, Brian has produced and played on a combination of over 50 releases, including several solo albums that explore electronics and improvised recording.
Brian works in both improvised and composed settings with groups that explore experimental and cross-cultural themes and modes of playing.
A founding member of multiple Australian acts, Brian currently performs in Gelareh Pour’s Garden, and, ZÖJ, and is also continuously releasing music with other acts.
Brian O’Dwyer is also a founding member of Bleeemo Music, a Melbourne based record label that primarily releases experimental music.
Jono Gilmour
Jono Gilmour is an emerging Melbourne-based sound recording engineer who has worked as an audiovisual technician in the live events and arts industries since 2012. He originally gravitated towards sound production while studying Film & Television in the mid-late 2000s and then again a few years later when his attempts at DIY production as a musician revealed the shortfall between his ambitions and the skills and equipment he had at hand.
He studied sound engineering part time during nights in his mid-20s and then entered the events industry, gaining a wide practical skill set and a range of experiences that have taught him never to get too comfortable or complacent in a niche. In the meantime, he used a portion of what became a steadily more reliable casual and freelance income to fund his passions, gradually amassing a collection of high quality recording equipment and the myriad tools and accessories needed to successfully ply one’s trade as a versatile recordist.
He has continued with events and installation work as a “day” job whilst taking on the occasional recording or mixing project to build his portfolio, and spending much of his spare time tinkering in his home studio, developing his skills and knowledge further through experimentation. Recent projects include recording and mixing approximately half of instrumental surf rock band The Birdcage’s 2020 album “Wave Machine”, recording, mixing and mastering MNMM’s album “Minimum” (2018) and mixing and mastering an as yet unreleased live album from experimental duo Warpigs. Now that the future of live events as an industry is on hold indefinitely, he hopes to make the most of his side hustle in recording and is also interested in exploring a role in the relatively new frontier of streamed events.
His philosophy on music production is simple - to record what is heard faithfully and flatteringly, and in mixing to help unobtrusively to make the work sound as well resolved as possible, so that the production positively contributes toward the communication of the artist’s idea.
Aviva Endean
Aviva Endean is an artist dedicated to fostering a deep engagement with (and care for) sound and music, with the hope that attentive listening can connect people with each other and their environment. Aviva is a clarinet player, improviser, sound artist, performance-maker and collaborator on interdisciplinary projects who seeks to draw audiences into shared and meaningful sonic experiences. She works in many different contexts including experimental and improvised music, creating immersive sonic environments, new chamber music, creating theatre works which are designed to be listened to, and working on cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Her debut solo release ‘cinder : ember : ashes’ featuring improvisations and original compositions for clarinets and various solo wind instruments was released on Norwegian label SOFA in 2018 to critical acclaim.
As a performance maker, Aviva often explores expanding the audience experience of sound by creating unusual, spatially engaged, and participatory contexts for listening. Her recent original work in this area include ‘Ping Pong Pop’ a game piece for live spinning contrabass clarinet player, audience and ping pong balls (Dark MOFO), ‘Sonic Labyrinth’ an immersive sound journey for children and adults alike, ‘Domicile‘ a performance installation work inhabiting a family home (New Music Network mini series), ’Intimate Sound Immersion’, a performance for one blindfolded person at a time (You Are Here festival, Camp Elsewhere, The Village), ‘In the Half Light’, a show for solo clarinet and immersive lighting design (ASTRA) ‘A Face Like Yours’ a sound work for video, foam earplugs and viewer (Darwin Festival, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair)‘Dual Rituals’ for clarinets and percussion (Bendigo International Festival for Exploratory Music), and ‘Hapnophobia’ a site specific participatory work for 5x5x5 at the Melbourne Arts Centre.
Aviva is the recipient of numerous Awards and grants including the prestigious Freedman Music Fellowship, JUMP mentorship program, the Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling scholarship, the Willem Van Otterloo memorial award, the Atheneum prize for chamber music and the Lionel Gell Merit award. Her work has been nominted for the EG music Awards ‘Best Avant-garde/Experimental act’ 2013, and the Aria Awards ‘Best World Music album’ 2014 and she has been described as “Australia’s most versatile clarinettist” in Real Time 2014.
Ayesha Mehta
Ayesha Mehta is a multi instrumentalist having trained at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music whose recent collaborations have included performances with Lamine Sonko (13:12) at the Melbourne Recital Centre, and the MAV (Multicultural Arts Victoria) commissioned Assembly; a group of 11 musicians from different backgrounds brought together to create a unique piece of music launched at the
Premiere’s Gala Dinner.
Upon graduating the Conservatorium, Ayesha was a founding member of The Lumiphonic Creature choir, a multi-disciplinary project created by world renowned multi-media artist Mark Bolotin, supported for the Australia Council, ArtsNSW, MEGA, ANAT and Bundanon Estate. Since its creation, the work has been presented at Underbelly Arts Festival, Cockatoo Island Arts Festival, New York Hall of Science, Museum of Modern Art (Zagreb,Croatia), and SXSW(Austin, Texas). Ayesha’s voice and image featured in the work.
Ayesha is the co-founder of Red Room, Taipei, a community driven creative Arts platform fostering intergenerational, cross cultural expression. Through events centred around spoken word, music, visual arts and theatre, Red Room has established itself as a key arts organisation in South East Asia, regularly featuring at Singapore and Taipei Tedx and having showcased in Kolkata and New York.
Ayesha has collaborated as a vocalist and composer with Arco Renz, choreographer for performing arts company Kobalt Works (Brussels, Belgium). Ayesha has also featured as a support vocalist to critically acclaimed songwriter Nic Cassey and has lent back up vocals to Ali Barter, rising hip hop star Daniel Elia and co-produced
numerous works with collaborator Ariel Blum as part of GRID Series, an artist development program.
David Jones
Master Drummer David Jones is often described as one of the most innovative and musical drummers in the world.
David’s brilliant career of over 40 years, spans all types of music, playing with some of the greatest musicians in every style. From John Farnham to James Morrison, Dragon to Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Don McLean to John Denver, Kate Miller-Heidke to Tommy Emmanuel, from WDR Big Band to John Williams, Crossfire and the legendary Pyramid.
He is a frequent guest artist and soloist with major Orchestras. He’s first call drummer for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan.
He’s had not one, but two Drumkit concertos written specially for him, by Tokyo composer Toshi Watanabe (2006) and Melbourne composer Joe Chindamo (2018).
The 2 bd Drumkit Concerto was commissioned by MSO, and premiered in March 2018, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, as part of The Last Night of the Proms.
Both concertos propelled the drumkit into new territory.
“He is phenomenal, nobody else can do what David does with the drums – it’s amazing.”
James Morrison
Ria Soemardjo
Ria Soemardjo is a Melbourne based musician with a passion for collaborating with artists across diverse range of genres and artforms.
Her distinct, haunting vocal style reflects her Australian/Indonesian cultural heritage and she draws on her fascination for Indonesian musical traditions in her song writing and collaborative projects. Ria is also a highly skilled teacher and workshop facilitator, who loves to share her fascination for voice and rhythm through her workshops and classes.
Ria recently performed in the sold out season of Asiatopa Festival February 2020 - Hades Fading/Hades Memudar.
Indonesia/Australia collaboration with Mainteater company, This exciting bilingual play was developed and premiered in Bandung in 2019. Ria worked with director /writer Sandra Long, guzheng player Sisca Harp, and the dynamic Mainteater actors, including Bandung poet Godi Suwarna to create live music and vocal soundscapes for this production.
'Cosmic spectacle and apocalyptic majesty in the land of the dead'
Read full review - Sydney Morning Herald
Adam Simmons
Adam Simmons is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator, involved across many different scenes within Melbourne and beyond, performing contemporary jazz, punk, afro-beat, new music, traditional Japanese honkyo-ku, funk and free noise/improv.
Adam regularly performs internationally and has worked with artists from USA, Poland, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Greece and New Caledonia. His ensembles include Origami and the renowned Adam Simmons Toy Band.
Adam is currently teaching shakuhachi at University of Melbourne. He has curated various events including Festival of Slow Music, 100:25:1 (a series of one hundred duets), Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues (2017-18) and The Usefulness of Art.
Adam is endorsed by Forestone Japan (saxophones), Selmer (bass clarinet) and Temby Australia (flutes).
Miranda Hill
Miranda Hill is a double bassist, G-Violonist, producer, and educator based in Melbourne.
Passionate about bringing experimental music to new audiences, she can be found performing everywhere from concert halls, to sticky carpet pubs, and maybe your own living room. She is artistic director and founder of experimental music ensemble: 3 shades black; Musical Director of Riff Raff Radical Marching Band; one half of the artistic collaboration Fine Small Mountain with Naima Fine; Octave Pussy: electro-acoustic drum and bass duo with Nat Grant; and with Leah Scholes: The Flying Tapirs.
Kelly Dowall
Kelly is a multi instrumentalist who studied at the University of Queensland School of Music.
Her love of Balkan, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern music has taken her overseas to pursue further study of regional ney and clarinet styles and seen her collaborate with musicians and dancers from many musical traditions.
Kelly currently performs on clarinet, ney and dayere with Saray Illuminado, Gelareh Pour’s Garden and The haBiBis.
Myles Mumford
“Genres in themselves don’t interest me. Good music made with passion and skill is what I love and there are no boundaries to that, it can be found anywhere…”
Myles Mumford pushes the envelope of expression in the audio realm. A prolific record producer, engineer and sound artist, Myles refuses to submit to genres, engaging in musical expression wherever he can. From Avant to Classic, Pop to Punk Myles explores auditory art with reckless activity and embraces musical expression without boundaries.
Myles has been producing since the late 90's and in that time has worked extensively across all spheres of music and audio creation including record production, music and effects for film, music and effects for theatre, location recording, concert production and more. He is well known for his musical and collaborative approach to recording, and his ability to create a sense of presence and space. Myles’ productions can be heard across Australian radio and a wide variety of streaming services and regularly receives critical acclaim in the form of featured singles, featured albums, or album of the week in a variety of contemporary media.
Ariel Blum
Ariel Blum is a Melbourne-based producer who has worked with artists including Sydney R’nB artist Lara Andallo , Melbourne artists Angie McMahon, Gordon Koang, Allara, Cash For Gold and UK artist Florence and The Machine.
As an artist, he was the bandleader of 11-piece soul-band Pablo Discobar and fronted critically acclaimed Melbourne band Telescopes. His current project, Trip-hop act St.Ives is currently working on their debut album.
Blum's composition work has featured in numerous TVC and short films for a range of brands and creative agencies including Sukin, Samsung C-Kol, Clemenger BBDO, Cummins and Ross, Corona, Aquarius Films, Elevator Productions, Kojo, Manikin and am:lab.
Ariel is the co- founder of GRID Series, a nation- wide Artist Development Program that provides emerging artists with essential skills, co-writing sessions and recorded material to support them as they work towards a sustainable music career. Contributors to the program include Ngaiire, The Middle Kids, Konstantin Kersting, Emily Wuramarra, Ecca Vandal, Kylie Auldist and Allysha Joy.