minit was formed by Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly in August 1997 with their first live performance at Memory Loss in Sydney that same month. Since then they have released minitmusic on the compilation CD Dislocations on Zonar Recordings and the forthcoming Memory Loss archives compilation CD. They also have an 8” micro-ep included in the Snawklor Recordings 50 Record-Players exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane in September. minit are currently recording material for an album to be released on sigma editions later this year. “Minitmusic is stumbling blocks, whorls and chains, garden paths, the rising sun, not too distant futures, anti-punctuality, real-time music for a micro-biologist.”
Torben Tilly’s musical career began with The Garbage & The Flowers in New Zealand in 1991. TGATF released a double LP, Eyesrindasifbeggars on The Now Sound earlier this year, of which a CD version is soon to be released. Tilly has lived in Sydney since 1993 and has worked on various musical and visual art projects during this time. Jasmine Guffond was formerly in Sydney-based band Alternahunk, who released a self-titled album through Dual Plover in 1997; and Hiss , who released their CD Alien Bass Soundscapes on AgroCalm in 1996. Jasmine also currently plays bass in rock group Alien Christ.

“Size was formed in 1993. Garry Bradbury was a musical dude while Jason Gee was more of a visual artist, lecturing surly arts students about video stuff. Jason had put together some mod files on his Amiga. Garry said, “Gee!, that’s nifty stuff, gimme it and I’ll turn it into full on weird techno shit”. They’ve never looked back. Live shows, a couple of remix tracks on the Dislocations CD on Zonar and the new Size Double CD prototype, Actual Size available thru sevcom.com

2 Litre Dolby is Leo Mullins (bass), Craig McPeade (drums) and Leif Svennson (guitar). 2 Litre Dolby have been playing regularly around Sydney and Melbourne for the last 12 months, earning a strong loyal audience for their sparse, dynamic, almost symphonic sound. They have a couple of tracks released on an Au Go Go compilation Wonder From a Quarter Acre, released earlier this year; and have forthcoming releases on a MDS compilation One of those Years and a 7” single on Blind Records titled The Wrong Compass. They are also currently recording an album to be out by the end of the year. “You can hum across a beer bottle and have it be the tender whisper in one of your songs / it’s between the cracks that the tension is built.”

“Parmentier was formed by Rosy Parlane and Dion Workman in May 1997. Since then not a lot has happened; one live performance and the release of Odessa, a “Geraldine lathe-cut” double 8” EP. This lack of activity is not only symptomatic of the Parmentier approach, it is also analogous to the music itself i.e. not a lot happens

The best way to describe the music is probably as low technology electronica, although it is so low-tech that it barely qualifies as electronic at all. If it does qualify as such, it is by being aesthetically close to this category of music, not because it is made with electronic instruments, as generally no instruments are used at all.

Parlane’s and Workman’s musical history begins when they formed Thela with Dean Roberts in 1993. Thela remained their main musical project until it was dissolved in April 1997. [They released two albums, eponymous and Argentina, respectively on Ecstatic Peace!]. Parlane has also performed and recorded with New Zealand free-improvising groups Empirical and Pit Viper, as well as releasing three Rosy Parlane solo 7” singles.

Parmentier are currently recording for a new release and although Odessa and the Rosy Parlane records are no longer available there are plans for these to be re-released in the not too distant future.”

-Todd Dealer, Melbourne April 1988

Sydney-based musician and sound engineer Shane Fahey was a founding member of experimental rock-group The Makers Of The Dead Travel Fast, who recorded two albums and performed from 1979 to 1982. He joined Co M Squared label band Scattered Order to record a studio album and live album between 1982 and 1984.

Fahey studied acoustics at the University of New South Wales in 1983 and 1984 and has worked as an acoustic engineer ever since, setting up his own company, Megaphon Acoustic Design, in 1988. This background in acoustics has been influential on his own music-making, particularly in his use of ambient field recordings. He has collaborated on “environmental” soundscapes with Social Interiors, releasing The World Behind You in 1995, and Traces Of Memory in 1997; as well as working with local groups Mind/Body/Split, Crow, Nunbait, and Machine For Making Sense, of which recordings are available. Recently, Fahey contributed material to a collaboration with Japanese noise artist Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) on a CD released by Extreme Records this year.

Mutanté Frequanté, Mutilated Frequencies, or Mute Freak are the monikers of Sydney-based musician Julian Culpan, whose musical career began in the late 1980’s in Melbourne. Experimenting in thash-metal and electronic-noise-rock contexts, he played in bands Lung U.P.C. and LifeDrill, who released an album, Monad, on Blackhole records in 1996. After this Culpan began collaborating with Jeremy Yuille under the name Controlled Atmospheres playing free-form electronic music at techno festivals and clubs, and releasing cassettes on their own label Eet-Air Industries. As Mutanté Frequanté, Culpan has been producing music that has been described as “stadium rock with a limp”, exploring the wonderful world of rhythmic swing, coupled with out of time delay and low-frequency tones. “Something like a cross between John Lee Hooker and a vibrator.” He features on the Dis-Locations:Incestuous Electronic Remixing compilation recently released by Zonar Recordings.

Kazumichi Grime is the particle spinner for this event, incorporating music of his own into the djing of others. Sydney-based artist Toby Grime has been working with electronic sound and multi-media since 1990, using a variety of analogue and digital-based systems that combine “found” sounds with synthesized material. He has performaed at numerous events and locations around Sydney, including in railway tunnels, concrete passageways, carparks and galleries. Some of his studio recordings can be heard on the Dis-locations:Incestuous Electronic Remixing compilation (Zonar Recordings), as well as on some earlier Clan Analogue releases; namely Cog, a double CD compilation from 1995; and, under the moniker of Telharmoneom, a 12” EP from 1993.

Caleb K.

Caleb K. has been wandering around the field of contemporary art and technology for a few years. He has lectured in the area at Unitec, in Auckland, and published a magazine entitled POST-. He has recently relocated to Sydney, interested in having a look around the place.

other writing by Caleb K._____
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Thoughts on Science, Technology and Art - Stelarc, Harley, Cullen and Kum
article for POST- 1995