SAFE IN SOUND FESTIVAL 2025

Featuring: Robert Seamons, Lindsay Sutherland, Chase Klingenspor, Ella Quintal, Elijah Augustine, Dale Gorfinkel.

We want you to know how terrific it’ll be. There’ll be people playing different instruments, or sometimes everyone playing the same one. Soulful vocals, keyboards, synths, drums, guitars, sometimes different genres all at the same time. And also Robert playing “a very expensive Fender Tradicaster”, his pride and joy. We’ve got some talent here. They’ll be asking, are we available?!

Out Hear facilitates a number of programs, mentoring artists who experience disability and other barriers to access in the arts. This collective meets weekly to experiment, improvise and record at Glenroy Community Hub. Yes, they’re available! outhear.com

Alessio and Danilo Dilettoso, long-time Safe In Sound alumni and true embodiments of the program’s spirit, return with a powerful new collaboration. Known for their intuitive command of the Airsticks, Alessio now channels percussive pandemonium through the quadruple-bass-drum fury of the SARPS (Semi Automated Robotic Percussion System), an innovative device developed by Safe In Sound’s artistic director Robbie Avenaim. Alongside him, Danilo’s vocal provocations build energetic feedback structures, pushing both artists into heightened realms of sonic exploration. Their dynamic interplay frequently erupts into bursts of ecstatic musical mirth, creating a thrilling, unpredictable performance that celebrates improvisation, invention, and joyful chaos.

Lakshan Standke Jain, age 13, weaves turntables and vocals into an experimental, eclectic mix, echoing the spirit of musique concrète. Reimagining the textures of everyday sound, Lakshan shapes bold new forms from the familiar. A longtime participant in the Safe In Sound program, he crafts sonic worlds where noise and voice dissolve into something wholly unexpected.

Joe Talia, Astred Meurer, Esther Tuddenham, Jay Euesden, Mia Alexander, and Nick Ashwood come together for a bold and exploratory performance where texture, improvisation, and deep listening converge. Talia weaves shimmering tape manipulations with live percussion, creating an ever-shifting sound field. Meurer, Tuddenham, and Alexander perform on a set of acoustic pump organs donated by the late great sound artist and composer Cornelius Fuhler, crafting densely textured, delectable layers that merge breath and tone into a resonant, immersive drone. Euesden contributes his signature vocal “OM bombs,” grounding the experience with minimalist, thunderous voice work. Ashwood prompts and guides the improvised composition, using prepared acoustic guitar and subtle harmonic cues. The result is a richly layered, collective sonic environment where structure emerges through intuition and collaboration.

About the artists:

Joe Talia Born in Melbourne, Australia, Joe Talia is an improviser and composer who works with percussion, tape and electronics. Focussing on the use of Revox tape machine and analogue synthesizers in combination with instruments and field recordings, Talia’s electronic works patiently build up sparkling, detail-rich sound worlds of gliding tones, skittering percussion and burbling location atmospherics. In live situations, Talia often uses tape and effects to process and warp his own and others’ playing into uncanny chains of echoes and spectral smears of sound.

Astred Meurer joined Noise Scavengers in April 2022. Astrid works through various sonic mediums with the band including guitar, found sound and electronics. Astrid also works through the medium of digital, exhibiting digital images with the MAS collective. In 2022, as a part of the Noise Scavengers, Astrid worked with legendary performance artist Stelarc to create a wearable synthesizer that Stelarc then used in the show Stellar Metal Arc. The same technology then appeared in the Noise Scavengers show Augmented Hyenas (2022) at JOLTED Arts Space. The Noise Scavengers released the album of Augmented Hyenas in 2023 (Hullick Studios).

Jay Euesden is a founding member of The Amplified Elephants (2006-). Euesden’s practice is focused on minimalist sonic patterns, usually realising these ideas through Voice or synthesisers. Euesden is a founding member of the Sonic Adventurers Collective (2019-) – a gallery-based visual art and sound collective.

Mia Alexander is a sound artist and free alto saxophonist, and one of the youngest voices in Australia’s experimental music community. Her playing draws inspiration from the fierce lyricism of Jimmy Lyons, the spiritual fire of Albert Ayler, and the expansive sound worlds of Pharoah Sanders. Combining raw intensity with exploratory improvisation, Alexander is forging a bold and distinctive path, bringing fresh energy and vision to the lineage of free jazz and experimental sound.

Esther Tuddenham Esther is a sound artist, poet, photographer and intermedia creative mind. Esther explores human emotions and their utterance in her work. In 2021 Esther completed her book of poetry and photography titled THE SEA-ER. The work outlines a tale of a young woman who develops the power of seeing into the future. In 2022 Esther premiered The Sea-er as a stage production (spoken word, music, video, live performance). In 2023 Esther released The Sea-er album (Hullick Studios).

Nick Ashwood is a composer and performer of contemporary experimental music from Nipaluna/Tasmania, now based in Naarm/Melbourne. Nick’s practice explores the possibilities of the steel-string acoustic through means of just intonation, preparations, bowing and harmonic space. Nick has had the opportunities to perform and recorded with a diverse array of artists from all over the world such as Laura Altman, Jim Denley, Robbie Avenaim, Annette Krebs, Amanda Stewart, Splinter Orchestra, Cor Fuhler and Chris Abrahams, amongst others. Nick is part of a number of ongoing groups 180º with Jim Denley and Amanda Stewart, The Splinter Orchestra, Duo with Laura Altman and newly formed group ACDA with Chris Abrahams, Jim Denley and Romy Caen. Throughout 2019 and 2020 Nick released a body of work that includes a number of improvised groups and his own composed works:

Steven Hagiliassis, known for his darksynth project Utrenja Ensemble inspired by Penderecki and Orthodox chant, and Mat Watson, a skilled synthesist, first collaborated last year, merging their sonic worlds into a ritualistic fusion of hypercontemplative soundscapes. This year, they are joined by Fred Leone, a Butchulla Songman and cultural custodian, who brings the deep resonance of Indigenous song and language to the mix. Together, the trio weaves ancient tradition with futuristic sound, crafting a powerful and immersive performance that bridges sacred ritual, electronic innovation, and cultural storytelling.

About the artists:

Steven Hagiliassis has been involved with JOLT for the last 6 months as part of the Sonic Adventurers Collective, but has been producing grand musical explorations for many years under his performance names, Utrenja Ensemble and Sergei Koslov, Utrenja Ensemble is a one-man Darksynth project from Melbourne, Australia, heavily inspired by the magnum opus composition of Penderecki, Utrenja. As well as Retrowave, Impressionism, and Russian Orthodox Liturgical Chants. My music is sinful. My music is holy. My music is Orthodox. Utrenja Ensemble may as well be the future of music.

Proficient Synthesist, Mat Watson, and orthodox resonance reformist of Utrenja ensemble, Steven Hagiliassis, will fuse their respective performative matrices in formal acknowledgement and demonstration of their shared affinity for Pendereckian hypercontemplation-as-worship. Crackling-circuitboard-communions compress into cavernous claustrosonics ardently lamenting the lost potentials of technocratic prospects, somehow simultaneously defiantly coalescing neoteric and captivatingly nebulous jubilations and rejuvenations in equal measure, as false expressive dichotomies fall away and all in service range are treated to rapturous auditory cleansing and bombinating existential enrichment.

Fred Leone is one of the Butchulla Songmen with Aboriginal, Tongan and South-Sea Islander roots. He comes from the Garrwa and Butchulla tribes. Fred’s role as a Songman sees him as one of the custodians of the traditional songs of the Butchulla tribe and one of a handful of keepers and custodians of their language. Fred is active in his role as a Songman, ensuring that contemporary Butchulla stories are embedded into the collective memory of the tribes oral histories and ceremonies going forward.

Emerging voice Marlo Mitsak, only 15 years old, brings the writings of Sean Baxter to life, channeling his sharp insights and critical theories rooted in the work of key philosophers like Foucault and Deleuze. Like a contestant buzzing in with the winning answer on a game show, Marlo delivers Baxter’s ideas with clarity and youthful presence, giving the audience a rare chance to engage with complex thought as if it were an exciting live challenge.