in 2020, I started an ongoing, curated collection of experiments - my notebook. I continue to update this space.

dnka + zil (2016-ongoing)

duo project with guitarist Danica Hobden

Danica and I met as noisy teenagers, learning and playing jazz as part of SIMA’s Young Women’s Jazz Workshops. at these workshops we also met our dear friend Laura Andrew. the three of us stayed connected beyond the course, playing as a trio “Shady Lady” whilst remaining kindred spirits.

in 2019, Danica and I first performed as “dnka + zil” for LOST+SOUND collective’s series. we performed a set of 20 miniatures we had composed together - exploring a vast array of musical worlds and possibilities (including Bach, folk, electronic, experimental and other imaginary music) with our instruments and objects. in 2021, we created and composed two tracks for The House That Dan Built’s “Festival in a Box” accompanied by a recipe that we shared as a story. In 2022, we performed in a (not so quiet) library a set of music ranging from a Bossa Nova to a structured improvisation based on extinct animal species, a rag to Ravel. As a performer, I feel simultaneously adventurous and supported when playing with Danica. It’s really special and I hope to make and share more music together in the future.

field notes (2020)
oboe, two pianos, percussion and objects

composed for Gabriella Smart, Cathy Milliken, Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold as part of Soundstream’s ‘Emerging Composer Forum’

field notes is a ‘project in progress’ - a collection of miniatures in playful response to Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park. the miniatures are composed and derived from researched, observed and imagined found material from virtual, real and imagined sites. the work exists as a series of site specific musical activities/pieces and an interactive web page (see button below).

25 scenes (2020)
solo percussion

This work was created for HiberNATION Festival 2020’s Care Packages project. I created this package for percussionist Claire Edwardes, who unravelled and explored its contents live via Twitch.

EXQUISITE CHORUS (2020)
web/game opera

commissioned by Gaudeamus Muziekweek

I had lots of fun building EXQUISITE CHORUS for SCREEN DIVE curated by the awesome Luke Deane and Maya Felixbrodt. EXQUISITE CHORUS is made up of three (slightly nonsensical) games or “acts”of sorts - constructed from material i have been in the habit of recording on various phones for the past couple of years - intentionally and sometimes accidentally. whilst creating this work, it was quite strange to revisit so many different sounds long after they were recorded - especially as a lot of the sounds, at the time, were recorded without any real purpose…sometimes I will record something knowing that it will be curiously funny to listen back to later….sometimes I record a sound that i feel captures a place/time/situation i find myself in. i hope to write a little bit more about this work in the future (especially about why i call it an ‘opera’), however, in the meantime…i hope you can dive in and explore it and the rest of the works part of the project.

sound keepers network (2020)

composed for the music box project

as part of hibernation festival’s contribution to “make music day 2020”, the music box project curated a 6 hour livestreamed ‘sound game picnic’. as part of the picnic, TMBP (in our red beanies and live artist cams) navigated through a series of mini-games i had composed to be performed whilst navigating various tasks such as people-watching, sitting along the shoreline and exploring the island.

sound parcels (2018)
performed by Elizabeth Jigalin, presented by Ensemble Offspring

sound on toast (2020)

video above: still life ignoring (2020) for toy piano

as part of hibernation festival of lo-fi, i presented a 1-hour breakfast show sound on toast - live-streamed every wednesday morning for ten weeks. i was interested in this idea of cooking up a regular sonic breakfast inorder to make a habit of beginning my day making/exploring music at a time when usually I would be simply waking up, drinking coffee and eating toast. i enjoyed the limitations (& possibilities!) of performing in my home and exploring my local surrounds to make music - for example: I never thought that I would be giving the Australian premiere of a Peter Ablinger work on a pedestrian footbridge above one of Australia’s busiest roads (depending on how you think of it to an audience of one…me… or to an audience of hundreds - unbeknownst to the drivers passing by the performance!), nor did I ever think I would stage an opera of sorts in a shoebox at 8AM.

after most episodes of sound on toast, I would spend the hour afterwards scribbling down the rush of ideas that would follow as result of the strange tension of performing from the comforts of one’s home to an online audience that might be listening. following this, i would edit a short video work using the content i had live-streamed that very morning and uploading these videos that same afternoon. much of these experiments you can explore via my notebook - a space i have enjoyed carving out for my ideas in motion.

o (2016-2019)
open instrumentation

an animated collection of scores for musicians to explore. i am happy that many ensembles have enjoyed exploring this work including: Stereo Mono, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory New Music Ensemble & COMA New Music Ensemble.