Five of Melbourne’s best experimental acts have organised for you the opportunity to see them play new soundtracks live to the films of Maya Deren.
Maya Deren was the first lady of avant-garde film making in the 1940’s and 1950’s, not only a filmmaker in her own right but also collaborating with the likes of Marcel Duchamp and Antony Tudor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren Her films are a wonderfully textured and moodily lit black and white and deal with themes such as ritual, movement, violence and beauty.

On 4th September  Occult Blood, Rottuer, Siilt, Electronic Shaman and Abre Ojos will play their own unique soundtracks to her films, including improvisations between Occult Blood and Rotteur, – Sillt, Electronic Shaman and Abre Ojos.

The films screened are:

Occult Blood: At Land

Siilt: Meditation on Violence
Abre Ojos: The Very Eye of Night

With collaboration performances to:
Witches Cradle and an edited version of Divine Horsemen- The Living Gods of Haiti

Saturday 4th September
Doors open 2.00pm at Loop Bar 23 Meyers Place Melbourne, Tix $10 full/ $5 Conc.
http://www.looponline.com.au

Occult Blood: noise wall degrading tape loops vocals to resurrect Maya herself http://www.myspace.com/occultblood
Rottuer: Rotteur makes cold, desolate soundscapes, haunted by droning machinery and sparse abstracted electronics. http://www.myspace.com/rotteur
Electronic Shaman: follower of the left hand path delivers resonance from the forgotten tombs of the old ones and stygian vistas of distant worlds http://electronicshaman.com
Siilt: siilt is dusty voltage-controlled atmospheres and loops by s.klein, also of Terminal Sound System (Extreme Music, AU) and HALO (Relapse Records, USA). www.antisound.net
Abre Ojos:  is improvised sound and vision for dystopian meditation http://abreojos.net

Good news for Melbourne lovers of the noisy dark- Bene Gesserit is now a regular feature on the last Monday of the month at Loop Bar. This opens the way for it to be not only the stage for some of melb’s finest experimenters, but also as a forum for everyone to come discuss, collaborate and experiment. The next one is:

MONDAY 30 August – 9pm – BENE GESSERIT HOUSE NURSERIES

Bene Gesserit House Nurseries presents another night of chilling dark ambient cinema featuring regular artists Abre Ojos collab set with Bene Gesserit founder B.Taylor. Shanie Reynolds returned with his project ‘Czura’ along with the dank resonance of Rotteur. The laptop manglings of Illuminoscilate as well as new to the House Nurseries bill ‘Electronic Shaman’ and MV. Promises to be a good night in Loop’s engine room. Free Entry as always \m/

Really looking forward to the collaboration with B.Taylor!

Bene Gesserit turns it on again for a night of dark experimental goodness this Tuesday at Loop Bar. This month features six artists paired up and set head to head in an improv showdown:
ROTTEUR vs MANTICLE
BEN TAYLOR vs SHAUN SOUTH
ILLUMINOSCILLATE vs ABRE OJOS
CZURA

Free entry!
Tuesday 6 July from 8.30pm at Loop Project Art Space & Bar
23 Meyers Place Melbourne CBD

The Spiral Galaxy tracks were recently featured as a part of ‘AUSthetic – Artists Uncovered Showcase’- an ongoing compilation of new and emerging Australian video artists and filmmakers playing at Federation Square.

Here are some pics. I have to say thanks to Jody and the team at Circus for making this happen!

The esteemed Bene Gesserit Nursery is back!

Bene Gesserit House Nurseries collective returns this year with another in a series of nights of dark ambient/Avant garde live film score. The marriage and interaction of film to music. This time featuring the improvised sound and vision ‘for dystopian meditations’ of artist Abre Ojos alonside the vast dark of Rotteur, the audio/visual artist Shane Reynolds and new collaboration/hunting party of Ben Taylor and Luke Dyball. ‘Hunt Hunter’ (featuring hunt footage by artist Eliza Dyball) Presented for the first time at Loop – the house nursery opens it’s incubators to public once again on the 2nd june in it’s third year of gestation/conception – 2010.

Wednesday 2 June from 8.00pm at Loop Project Art Space & Bar
23 Meyers Place Melbourne CBD

For those brave souls heading off to Rainbow Serpent this year here’s a little something you might want to check out:

Rainbow Serpent welcomes a new event to the festival- Ascension Engine is an audio visual cornucopia of meditative sound and vision from some of Australia’s finest audio visual
experimenters. With sacred frequencies, audio reactive mandalas for meditation, blissful binaural beats and alchemical transformations through sound and vision.
Ascension Engine is a discreet part of the Crystal Mandala and comes alive at 10pm on Friday and Sunday nights until 2am.

Artists playing include:
Sacred Resonance http://www.ultimalive.blogspot.com/ http://www.sacredresonance.com.au/
Duo from South Australia – Darren Curtis <BA.Hon.MUS.St.> and Bradley Pitt set up Sacred Resonance through visionary thinking and higher experience of the sacred, incorporating new media of biofeedback and immersive entrainment through sonic and visual design.

Electronic Shaman http://electronicshaman.com
Wielding laptop processed field recordings and synthesised frequencies

Abre Ojos http://abreojos.net
Exploring the realms of synesthesia by creating an immersive audio visual experience, it is improvised sound and vision for dystopian meditation

Look to the Skies http://looktotheskies.net
An improvised laptop collaboration exploring deep soundscapes with cinematic landscapes

Zen Paradox
The esteemed electronic music pioneer doing a special ambient set just for the Crystal Mandala & Ascension Engine

phase-loc
phase-loc is Ross Healy (Cray, Amnesia, 56k, This Digital Ocean etc) and Simon Birds of VICMOD teaming up to bring you an ambient, electro acoustic space set.

Running Times
Friday 22nd Jan
10.00 – 10.45 Look to the Skies
11.15 – 12.00 VICMOD Ross & Simon
12.30 – 1.15 Sacred Resonance

Sunday 24th Jan
10.00 – 10.45 Zen Paradox
11.15 – 12.00 Electronic Shaman
12.30 – 1.15 Abre Ojos