Originally published in the catalogue for the exhibition ‘J.G. Ballard, Autopsy of the New Millennium’, held at the CCCB, Barcelona, Spain, October 2008. The piece accompanied the soundtrack of Ballardian music, which I curated for the occasion.
‘NEGATIVE ACOUSTIC SPACE’: BALLARDIAN SOUND ART
Curated by Simon Sellars
J.G. Ballard says he has a ‘tin ear’: that he has [...]

Interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on ballardian.com, 3 October 2007.
Cousin Silas is a producer of dark-ambient soundscapes. He has five albums to his name and a few EPs, spiking the vein of glacial electronica. His work evokes Edward Artemiev and Brian Eno. In fact, for afficionados drawing inspiration from Eno’s most influential ambient works (Music [...]

>> The first LA flyer, 2000 (designed by Daniel New)
I was recently asked about my involvement in the Liquid Architecture festival, so I thought I’d explain it here. Liquid Architecture originated in 2000 at RMIT University when I was working at RMIT’s Union Arts as their special events officer. My brief was to devise arts [...]

interview by Simon Sellars & Anna Krien

‘Music Is Not A Bloody Race’ was originally published in Subterrain magazine #2, July 2007.

There are two music groups for the benefit of clients at the Ozanam Community Centre. There’s one on Mondays, run by Alan Pavlikas, which is more of a rock-band affair, and one on Tuesdays, run [...]

interview by Simon Sellars

‘Whatever Goes into the Mix’ was originally published in Subterrain magazine #2, July 2007.

Alan Pavlikas manages the Ozanam Community Centre’s band, Shallow Rabbit, which has released one CD and has had a documentary made about it (see Subetrrain #1). intrigued, I crashed one of their jam sessions and collared Alan, guitarist Keith [...]

Flyer for Northern Void.

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 19 February 2007.

Last night I attended the second (and last, for now) screening of Philip Brophy’s 50-minute film Northern Void, billed as a “live cinema performance” accompanied by the real-time sonics of Ph2 (Brophy and Philip Samartzis). Northern Void is set along Plenty Rd, in the northern [...]

interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 25 October 2004.

Newton Armstrong is a composer/performer, ex of Melbourne, now ensconced in research at Princeton University in the US. His recent project for kids, SPACE MONKEYS, focused on interaction design and performance. It involves rethinking and reconfiguring generic game controllers as tools for facilitating alternative forms [...]

photo: Michael Shaw
interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 5 September 2004.

Melanie Chilianis, a Melbourne flautist, has sallied forth in recent times with a successful union between the instrument she made her name with, the flute, and technological mixes, patches and crunchy electronic treatments.
Melanie has an honours degree in music performance from Monash University [...]

Melatonin, photo: Kirsten Bradley
by Simon Sellars

Originally published in RealTime Magazine, #62, August/September 2004.

I’m told “sleep music” is a new genre: music to listen to while dozing off. Emboldened by this, I visited Bus Gallery with palpable excitement. I’ve often yearned for a club that, instead of inducing forward motion through hyper-accelerated beats, piped in music [...]

Lawrence English & Philip Samartzis, LA4, 2003
by Simon Sellars

‘Watching While You Sleep’ by Simon Sellars. Originally published on the Liquid Architecture website, July 2004.

Melbourne’s festival of sound art, Liquid Architecture, originated in 2000 at RMIT University, when RMIT’s Union Arts offered the ((tRansMIT)) student sound collective the chance to stage a festival promoting the talents [...]