What have we been up to lately?

• We spent most of December, January and February creating our new production Industria. It was mighty hard work, often 7 days a week, 15 hours a day, but so worthwhile! It is a show that hopefully takes us to a new level of musicality and performance - integrating video, samples, live percussion, soundscapes, built and found instruments, movement and lighting. We premiered the show at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in February/March, had a lot of fun and got some great reviews. In May, we returned to Seattle to present the North American Premiere of Industria at the Seattle International Children's Festival. Thanks to Brian Faker for all his hard work in getting us over there. It's an amazing festival - this year we saw incredible Vietnamese Water Puppets (The Saigon Water Puppet Theatre), Tahitian dancing and drumming (Tamarii Mata'ire'a Nui) and Chinese acrobats (Chongqing Youth Acrobatic Troupe) among others.

 

• After our trip to Seattle we took some time off to recuperate and do some other projects. Ben spent some time with The Bird, the live electronica duo that he formed with Simon Durrington a few years ago, and also travelled to London. Greg travelled in the US, Canada, Europe and Turkey.

 

• We're currently touring around Australia with Quiver, our collaboration with Leigh Warren & Dancers and The Australian String Quartet. Check out our info page for details. It's been great to collaborate with a dance company of the high calibre of Leigh Warren's. Developing a dance score with them has been a fantastic opportunity to discover fresh musical areas whilst expanding upon our urban junk-percussion themes. We'll be touring Quiver until mid-December.

 

• Future plans for us are heading in many directions. Ben will be spending more time with The Bird, another group Da, and miscellaneous other musical projects. Ben and Greg will be performing with Taikoz, a taiko (Japanese drumming) group formed in Sydney a year ago with Riley Lee, Ian Cleworth (Synergy Percussion), David Hewitt (B'Tutta), Rebecca Lagos and Colin Piper (Synergy Percussion). We have three concerts lined up at the Sydney Festival in January 1999 and another two concerts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in February 1999.