Latest track: "the deafening clamour of distant cars"

Posted by on Friday, 2nd of November, 2012 No comments

The excellent Ears Have Ears on FBi (presenter Brooke Olsen and producer Scarlett Di Maio) recently asked me to contribute to their series of experimental soundtracks. My trio Haunts created one a month or so back (listen to Night Begins on SoundCloud), and they have a stack of other awesome Australian artists up on their SoundCloud.

I created a new 12 minute Raven track featuring piano recorded in our living room, with the sound leaking up from one of Sydney's busiest roads, plus cello, electronics and beats. Initially formed from unstructured piano improv, it took shape as additional layers of piano and piano processing, then melodic and noisy cello, and finally pulsing sub-bass and 808s were added in to the mix. The result is something I'm pretty proud of, and a direction I want to explore more in coming months.
Listen here:

"Faux-naïve journey of alrightness" for Sydney International Animation Festival

Posted by on Monday, 29th of October, 2012 No comments


Here's the track I wrote for the opening of the Sydney International Animation Festival at UTS a couple of weeks ago. I wrote this piece with the express intention that it could be performed live, and played it at the opening as a live soundtrack to a delightful animation of the SIAF logo by the 1st year UTS Animation students.
It's purely cello and loop pedal, all layers played & recorded live in one take.

Next major work to appear will be my "soundtrack" to a non-existent film, appearing this Thursday the 1st of November on FBi's Ears Have Ears, sometime between 9 & 11pm. It'll go up on SoundCloud a little after it's broadcast – very much contrasting with this work, it's dark and minimalist, with layers of piano and processed piano, cello, and electronics.

New music on the horizon + listen to Haunts

Posted by on Monday, 8th of October, 2012 No comments

I'm writing new Raven music as we speak! (Well, almost)
I've written a new cello looping track as a soundtrack for an animation piece to launch the Sydney International Animation Festival at UTS this week. I should be able to air it soon.

And I'm creating a 10-15 minute work for FBi's lovely Ears Have Ears, who have regular new works, mostly performed live, on their Thursday 9-11pm timeslot. You can hear mine on Thursday the 1st of November.

Raven is playing live on Friday the 26th of October with Gilded (aka Perth's Adam Trainer & Matt Rösner), Seaworthy and Pimmon at new venue 107 Projects Redfern. Stellar lineup. Here's the Facebook event. Note it's an early start and finish for this one! I'm on just after 7pm.

And I shouldn't neglect my collaborations here. I'm very excited to be continuing my duo with Ollie Bown of Icarus. We'll be playing one of our improv sets (cello, loops, effects and laptop) at the legendary, shambolic Sando in Newtown on Thursday the 25th of October. Facebook event here – crazy eclectic lineup, should be fun!

And then there's my trio Haunts with Greg & Matt from Underlapper, who've been companions in music – both fandom and performance – for years. It's brilliant to be turning this into a real band, and we have some great songs with crunchy beats, glitchy sounds, vocals and cello loops coming soon. Meanwhile, here's a long track we recorded live on the aforementioned Ears Have Ears a month or so ago:

Haunts' gig has been delayed ‐ now we have Thursday the 29th of November at the Red Rattler in Marrickville as a fund-raiser for Dirty Shirlows, and then Saturday the 1st of December at, er, "secret venue", with ex-Underlapperer Cold House and electronic ambient-techno genius Gentleforce. Facebook event should eventually tell you more.

And finally, I played cello on Sophie Hutchings' amazing new album Night Sky, and we're launching that at Cafe Church (Colbourne Ave) in Glebe on Friday the 2nd of November. Facebook event? You betcha!

Oh yeah, and post-finally… On Sunday the 11th of November I'm playing cello in two of the works in the Radio With Pictures even at this year's Graphic Festival. Radio plays with comics and soundtracks. I have no idea what I'll be playing! Isn't that exciting!

SO MANY GIGS. SO MANY MES! (and yes, FourPlay will return next year…)

New track: headache music #1

Posted by on Friday, 29th of June, 2012 No comments

While sleeping dogs lie was ultimately chosen for SEQUENCE4, I actually wrote another new track for the compilation too. It's called "headache music #1" and I'm pretty damn proud of it.
You can stream it from SoundCloud:

I'm planning to collect it with a couple of other unreleased pieces and maybe a remix or two and release it on Bandcamp soon.

"sleeping dogs lie" on SEQUENCE4!

Posted by on Friday, 29th of June, 2012 No comments

I'm extremely honoured and chuffed to announce that my track "sleeping dogs lie" has been included in SEQUENCE4, the 4th in Futuresequence’s incredible series of huge, free compilations.


Stream above (mine is track 32), but it's a free download, so please go over there and grab the whole thing now!

New DJ mix – Tooths Takeaway 005 (Root Canal Surgery mix)

Posted by on Monday, 25th of June, 2012 No comments

The lovely Martin Peralta of Tooths asked me to do a DJ mix, and accidentally praised me for the eclectic nature of my Utility Fog playlists.
I have finally put it together (live in Traktor, after a bunch of practice runs) and I think it's pretty ace! And it's as eclectic as fuck.
It's just called Tooths Takeaway 005, but I've dubbed it the Root Canal Surgery mix.

Here's the Tooths post, and you can listen here:

Tooths T/A 005 – Utility Fog by Tooths on Mixcloud

You can also download the mix (~ 120 MB)

Full tracklisting/timings:
[00:00] Swans – Sex God Sex (live, 2011)
[04:19] Objekt – The Goose That Got Away
[05:17] Sunship Feat Warrior Queen – Almighty Father (Vocal Mix)
[06:53] The Bug feat. Flowdan – Stampin
[08:30] Dokkebi Q – Hardcore Cherry Bon Bon
[11:30] Dro Carey – Foes, Gallons n Fathoms (overlaid earlier)
[12:35] Filastine – Colony Collapse (with Nova)
[17:25] Dictaphone – Rattle feat. Mariechen Danz
[23:00] Child – Bad Timing (overlaid over most of the Dictaphone track)
[24:30] Zammuto – Harlequin
[29:25] Four Tet – Glue of the Other World (overlaid over most of the Zammuto track)
[31:16] Can – Vitamin C
[34:24] Manyfingers – You're No Siren feat. Chris Adams & Liz Sharkey
[38:24] Hrvatski – Apostle
[41:59] Richard Youngs – Fire Horse Rising
[44:29] Azealia Banks – 212 ft. Lazy Jay
[46:08] Oceania – Mantra
[48:35] Icarus – Dumptruck Cannibals (version 029)
[50:50] Shoeb Ahmad – The Orchids
[54:18] Charles Hayward – Fifth Of November
[60:36] Swans – Sex God Sex (live, 2011)

New SoundCloud tracks – sleeping dogs lie and cold afternoon

Posted by on Monday, 21st of May, 2012 No comments

I recently uploaded two tracks to SoundCloud.
The new track is "sleeping dogs lie":

I had sat down to prepare for an upcoming gig, and this piece emerged as I set up all the gear. It sounded good, so I hit record and created the demo above.

I also added a track that was recorded a couple of years back, "cold afternoon":

It was originally intended for sound&fury's passeridae series of split 7"s, but tragically sound&fury's Adam D Mills took his own life before the series was completed. He was a beloved figure in the Australian experimental scene, and this track is dedicated to his memory.

Hit the SoundCloud logo to go to the song's page.
If you don't see anything, your browser might have a problem with the SoundCloud HTML5 widget. If so, clicking on the track names will also take you directly to the SoundCloud pages.

New track! Raven remixes Telafonica!

Posted by on Tuesday, 6th of March, 2012 No comments

Telafonica EP
Now available is my remix of the lovely Sydney indietronic band Telafonica. I took all the parts except some vocals and replaced them with layers of cello and effects. Fun!
Download for free at their Bandcamp, stream here:

Video: recent performances

Posted by on Tuesday, 13th of December, 2011 No comments

Recently I played a set at Cockatoo Island as part of a gig I curated called Postfolkrocktronica Picnic. I briefly played a set of my own, and then debuted an exciting new duo I've been working on with Ollie Bown of Icarus, using custom looping and processing software created by him and workshopped together.
We've got a ways to go, but there's a tremendous amount of potential for some really cool stuff there…

So, first up some solo Raven. This is (most of) a piece without a name that I created for the Goodbye Sarajevo event at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival.

And here's a possibly bewildering excerpt from the Bown/Hollo duo, sometime after Ollie dropped the tempo of the piece and warped everything. You can't really hear the way the beats are synchronised with the cello loops, but hopefully it's pretty at least:

Last-minute Raven – Jurassic Lounge Tuesday August 9th

Posted by on Sunday, 7th of August, 2011 No comments

I've been a bit slack with promoing this one, but on Tuesday evening coming, the 9th of August, I'm playing a live Raven set twice (45 minutes, then the same again later on) at the Jurassic Lounge at the Australian Museum.
The linked show outline says "Atrium DJ", but rest assured I'm playing live! Lots of cello+loops like the video in the previous post, and the usual laptop glitchiness as well — all with live visuals from Barry Saunders.