Sounding Together ‘25: Talinup
Sounding Together is a multi-day workshop returning for the first time since 2020. It focuses on improvising and thinking through the relationships between sound, place, community and weather. It is intended for musicians, composers, dancers, choreographers and anyone interested in experimental sounding & listening, emplaced practice, ecological arts, and improvisation.
Sounding Together strives to be a non-hierarchical space collectively directed by its participants. It is gently facilitated by our invited artist - one of the continent’s most celebrated improvisers, Jim Denley (Gadigal Country, Sydney). The week offers total immersion in perception with careful attention to site & context. It exists to nurture idiosyncratic, curious, courageous practice in a beautiful, fun setting.
Sounding Together has no fixed schedule, and no expected outcomes. It’s a place to be infatuated with improvising and being in generative, creative flow for a short period of time. It’s also where the social and artistic are woven together, with ample opportunities to cook, eat, talk, think, dance, swim and walk. The workshop is best placed when we follow what organically grows out of being together.
After manifesting on Ballardong boodja and Wadandi boodja in 2018 and 2020, Sounding Together 2025 is situated again on the lands of the Wadandi people in Talinup/Augusta, just under 4 hours drive from Boorloo. The project is held in a lovely family holiday home, right on the inlet (a few big steps out the front door will land you in the water). Ground transportation can be coordinated to visit interesting adjacent sites.
Information for applicants
Sounding Together will run between January 8 and 12, 2025.
Applications for Sounding Together 2025 close on November 24. Application is by EOI. Places are limited.
Participation costs $550. This covers the costs for Jim’s participation and facilitation, plus accommodation, fuel, food, use of equipment, and some basic staffing costs.
To reserve your spot, we will need 50% of the cost upfront after your application is approved. The remainder is due before January 1, 2025. This amount is non-refundable except on compassionate grounds in extraordinary circumstances.
We recognise the various pressures on artists at this time, but we need your contribution to make this special event happen. If cost is truly a prohibitor, please apply anyway, note this, and if we can help, we will.
What’s provided and what to bring
Tone List provides:
A bed
Places to make music
Cooking and bathroom facilities (shared).
Ground transport & fuel costs.
Loads of fresh ingredients and snacks, accommodating to your diet.
Insect spray, sunscreen, hand sanitiser, first aid kit.
High-end, weatherproof audio documentation equipment
A PA system and pair of studio monitors.
You should bring:
Your instrument(s).
Any amplification technology your instrument needs, including cables.
An additional portable &/or battery-powered instrument option is recommended for those whose main instrument is stationary/large/electronic.
Any personal documentation equipment you would like to use (Zoom, camera, etc.), plus weatherproofing, chargers and spare batteries.
Bedding and towels.
Clothing, including: sunhat, good hiking shoes, clothes for cold and very hot weather alike, raincoat, bathers (essential).
Water bottle.
Personal snacks, comfort foods etc. (please note there will be plenty of food provided).
Alcoholic drinks if you want them (please note that while having a drink is fine, we prefer the workshop to be a minimal-alcohol setting).
Fun things (scores, ideas, games, snorkels, metal detectors, magnifying glasses, magickal objects, etc.).
Interstate artists can get in touch for assistance with any of the above. Local artists hoping to borrow equipment from Tone List may incur a hire cost.
Accommodation & meals
Accommodation at Sounding Together is in shared rooms. Very limited private rooms are available; if you would like to be prioritised for a more private space, please indicate the reason for your preference in as much detail as you are comfortable. No promises but we’ll do our best.
All food will be vegetarian with vegan, gf etc. options as necessary based on needs of the cohort. Main meals are eaten together. Cooking responsibilities emerge spontaneously like most things in the workshop; enthusiastic-but-sensitive commandeering is welcome.
The vibe is rugged, DIY, friendly, gentle, silly and thrown-together. It’s comfortable, but “camping adjacent” and without much privacy in the house itself. Being a good sport about this is a way into the magic of the workshop.
Participation is limited based on the number of beds. If you would like to bring a swag or tent and sort yourself out, we may be able to offer you a reduced participation rate (not guaranteed).
About Jim
Born in the Illawarra, south of Sydney in 1957, Jim Denley has been active in experimental and improvised sound since the 1970s. Perhaps best known as an improviser on saxophone and flute, and for remarkable recordings made “as weather” outdoors throughout this continent, he also makes radio works, including the Prix Italia-winning Collaborations in 1989, and directs the SplitRec label, releasing music from Sydney's rich and idiosyncratic scene.
Jim has been a member of pivotal Australian improvising groups The Relative Band and Machine for Making Sense, as well as Mural, Bad Photography, 180º and the Splinter Orchestra. He was a member of Derek Bailey’s Company for a week of concerts in 1990.
Jim has held a de facto role as a voice of encouragement and inspiration for musicians on this landmass, including here on the west coast of the continent. Many of Tone List’s roster have learnt invaluable lessons from working with Jim. We're incredibly excited to have him as a mentor for this project again.
Accessibility & safety
The house is not wheelchair accessible.
As noted above, the house will no doubt feel busy, vibrant and stimulating. We can discuss provisions such as quiet spaces based on the need of the participants. In general, we would encourage treating bedrooms as quiet/low stim/check-out areas during the day.
The social culture of Sounding Together in the past has always been gentle and consent-based and we intend to keep it this way. Opting out of activities or socialising is fine. Alcohol tends to be a very minimal part of proceedings, if at all.
We are committed to making Sounding Together safe, from the perspective of interpersonal safety as well as safety in the environment. We encourage you to take the initiative to look after yourself too, by bringing appropriate gear, keeping your wits about you, and being aware of dangers associated with the south-west of WA.
Tone List will bring a first aid kit, insect spray, sunscreen and ear plugs. Someone with first aid training will be part of the team.
We will follow Emergency WA advice in the event of force majeure (bushfire, etc.).
You will be asked to agree with a code-of-conduct on the EOI form.
Feel free to get in touch with questions.
Testimonials
“[Sounding Together] was an opportunity to, in a fun and low pressure way, explore ways of improvising music, together, in small and large (full) ensemble, incorporating all we know about music and actively forgetting it, agreeing to partake in a shared experience where distinctions between sounds of the world and our ‘pseudomusical’ contributions blur; the rich sounds of nature; the bush in Koorda in a handful of different locations; starting at dawn til late at night. Jim Denley was a wonderful mentor and seemingly perfect fit for this benevolently anarchic situation. Sounding Together gave me a sense of confidence that my odd endeavours with music are more and more important in our digitized, atomised worlds. Stuart Orchard (2018 participant)
The opportunity to connect with other musicians and spend time in Koorda, listening and responding to the environment was one that rarely presents itself as a professional musician. It gave me the chance to reflect on my own practice, learn from those around me, and make new music with a group of diverse and experienced creatives. More valuable still was the lack of predetermined outcomes and the trust that we could choose the way in we used our time. With this mentality we were truly free to take in the landscape, people and the place. Leah Blankendaal (2018 participant)
Acknowledgments
Tone List acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we work: the Whadjuk Noongar people. We also acknowledge the Wardandi Noongar people as the custodians of the area on which Talinup/Augusta stands. We wish to pay our respects to them, and to elders of both nations past, present and emerging, and acknowledge their ongoing contribution to culture and life in the region. We acknowledge tens of thousands of years of ancestral law, & that sovereignty over the place now known as Australia was never ceded.
