This experimental quintet BLOOM was gathered together for the first time at the SoundOut 2018 festival. It was such an incredibly sensitive and articulate, nuanced set of minimalistic electroacoustic music that we at SoundOut felt others definitely needed to hear it. The artists gathered here listen deeply in the moment and craft a sublime set of music. We only wish there was more ...hint!
Romy Caen: harmonium/electronics
Prue Fuller: small object-instruments/electronics
Tony Osborne: vocals/electronics
Alexandra Spence: clarinet/electronics
Millie Watson: piano/toy piano
Romy Caen: harmonium/electronics, Sydney
Romy Caen is a musician from Sydney. Since 2012 she has been playing harmonium and electronics in the Splinter Orchestra and in various small groups with musicians such as Laura Altman, Melanie Herbert and Jeremy Tatar. In 2008 she began playing in Swill with Tim Wall and Liam O'Donoghue, and over the years has performed at the Now Now Festival, the Newcastle Weekender Festival, Siteworks Festival, Tectonics Festival and in many other small venues around town. Her sounds have been described as the most precise and delicate acoustic minimalism but she is also attracted to the chaos of feedback and the unpredictable noise of her trusty homemade synth. Romy is also an arts studio coordinator currently working in Bankstown after 1.5 years in remote NT at an Aboriginal-owned art centre. Previously she worked for Brand X to establish Tempe Jets, a music studio and rehearsal space, and Camperdown Clubhouse, a visual art studio. She also co-founded AV Union, an artist run space on Parramatta Rd, and established Shepherd Studios, an art studio complex in Marrickville in 2013. Experimental event series’ she has coordinated include psh.live at Anyplace Projects and Sound Series at Hardware Gallery “a highlight of the alternative music scene” – RealTime Arts.
Prue Fuller: small object-instruments/electronics, Sydney
Prue is a Sound Artist from Sydney that has been exploring the world of Art Brut’ and improvisation. She has been playing improvised music, predominantly as a member of Splinter Orchestra, since 2014. Her approach to improvisation comes strongly from creative play, investigation and experimentation. She uses her voice and a number of small objects on glass to shape and explore the textures of sound. Prue plays regularly with Splinter, but also in smaller groups; notably a duo with Melanie Eden and a quintet named TQF4M1 with Andrew Fedorovitch, Romy Caen, Melanie Herbert and Laura Altman. She has performed at the NOWnow festival, Tectonics Festival and Siteworks at Bundanon Trust and regularly performs at a number of venues around Sydney.
Tony Osbourne: vocals/electronics, Sydney
Tony has collaborated with many visual, sound, theatre and dance artists. Since 2002 his music collaborators include Cameron Deyell, Clayton Thomas, Clare Cooper, Sam Pettigrew, Gail Priest, Amanda Stewart & Rishin Singh and appeared in numerous NowNow Festivals in Sydney. As MADHEAD (solo vocal/electronics) he has performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Soundout 2012 (with Rishin Singh), Canberra. His ongoing duet project as vocalist with sax player Andrew Fedorovitch has also been heard in Sydney (Nownow Festival) & Berlin (Studio 8). He is also a bass singer with Sydney University Graduate Choir and Splinter Orchestra (both since 2009). He performs and teaches performance improvisation around Australia and his 30 years of theatre and dance practice has, in the last three years taken him to perform in Basel, Shanghai & New York. He also writes on music and dance for Real Time arts.
Alexandra Spence: clarinet/electronics, Sydney
Alexandra works within the fields of sound installation, composition, and improvised music. Alex is interested in the idea of listening as an active practice. She is inspired by the idea of ‘collaborating’ with one’s environment, understanding the relationships between the listener, sound, and the surrounding environment to be a kind of communion or conversation. Her work favours subtlety, quietude and unusual sound sources. Alex has performed and presented work in concerts, festivals, symposiums and galleries in Australia, Canada, and Europe, including the Women In Sound/Women On Sound forum: Educating Girls in Sound, Lancaster, UK; NOW now Festival, Sydney, AU; Is This Art? dLux Media Arts, Sydney, AU; Destroy Vancouver, CA; Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, CA; and the FKL Symposium, Besenello, IT. She is the co-curator of Tidal~Signal Festival, which takes place in Vancouver, and aims to highlight women, and transgender artists working in left-field genres, and is a recent graduate of the MFA Interdisciplinary Arts program at Simon Fraser University, CA.
alexandraspence.net
Millie Watson: toy piano/percussion, Canberra
Millie is a classically trained pianist from the ANU School of Music and a member of the Canberra Experimental Music Studio. She performs around Canberra, composing sets comprising of found sound recordings that in turn inspire live improvisation. Inspired by Feldman and Cage, Amelia’s style draws upon classical forms yet is rooted in a desire to explore the quality of sound and Improvise. She has produced here own CD recently called "things I know to be true" and is a joy to work with and has performed in the EMSC trio with Rhys Butler and Richard Johnson of late.
released September 23, 2018
Recorded at the SoundOut festival on February 4th 2018, by Kimmo Vennenon.
Mixed and edited by Kimmo and mastered by Richard Johnson.
Cover photo of Spotted Pacific Jellyfish: Phyllorhiza punctata @vancover Aquarium by Alexandra Spence and cover design by Richard Johnson.
All rights reserved and remain sole property of the Artists and SoundOut.
