Sounding Together ‘25.2
Sounding Together is a 5-day workshop & artist retreat. It is intended for musicians, composers, dancers, choreographers and anyone interested in experimental music, listening, ecological arts, and improvisation. It offers total immersion in perception with careful attention to place & context, exploring how improvisation can deepen our relationship with these things. It strives to be non-hierarchical and fun, driven by each participant’s curiosity and initiative, and supported by the peace and beauty of its location.
Sounding Together has no fixed schedule, and no expected outcomes. It’s a place to be infatuated with 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.
This edition is gently facilitated by visiting artist Aviva Endean (Naarm) and supported by Saskia Willinge (WWIM) and Josten Myburgh & Annika Moses (Tone List). It is situated again on the Country of the Wadandi Noongar people in Talinup/Augusta, just under 4 hours drive from Boorloo. The project is held in a lovely, big family holiday home, right on the inlet (a few big steps out the front door and you’ll be in the water). Ground transportation can be coordinated to visit interesting adjacent sites.
Key information for applicants
Sounding Together will run between December 3 and 7, 2025.
Applications for Sounding Together 2025 close on October 1, 2025. Application is by EOI. Places are limited.
Participation is a sliding scale between $350 - $700. It is entirely up to you what amount you pay (the workshop costs about $7000 to put on). You will be asked to elect what to pay after the application stage, so that this does not influence the assessment of your application. Tone List’s ‘25/’26 program is sponsored by the Western Australian state government through the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism & Sport, so we are not under pressure to fully reimburse our costs.
The participation fee supports Tone List to provide a Wadandi Welcome to Country, facilitation & mentorship, fuel, food & drinks, and use of PA & recording equipment. The accommodation is provided in-kind through a private arrangement and does not influence the workshop cost.
One fully subsidised spot is available. You may elect to be considered for this if you are a person experiencing financial hardship, or an interstate applicant investing their own money to travel and participate.
To reserve your spot, we will need 50% of the cost upfront after your application is approved. The remainder is due before December 2, 2025. This amount is non-refundable except on compassionate grounds in extraordinary circumstances.
How to apply
EOIs are viewed by Saskia, Josten, Aviva & Annika. They are considered on the following basis:
Sounding Together makes sense for the applicant: goals and intentions are aligned or mutually supportive
the applicant is in a good position to achieve something particularly valuable from Sounding Together participation at this stage in their practice
the applicant has something unique to offer amongst the cohort, based on their creative background, the instrument they play or medium they work in, or their skill and experience level (emerging or established).
some consideration is given to gender balance across the cohort
flexibility in terms of accommodation needs may make it more likely that your application can be chosen, for purely practical reasons
What’s provided and what to bring
Tone List provides/coordinates:
The venue.
Beds, and floor space for camping mattresses.
Places to make music.
A Welcome to Country and induction by a Wadandi cultural leader.
Cooking and bathroom facilities (shared).
Ground transport & fuel costs.
Loads of very high quality, healthy, local organic produce, cooking ingredients and snacks, accommodating to your diet (the food at Sounding Together is notoriously good).
Insect spray, sunscreen, hand sanitiser, first aid kit.
High-end, weatherproof audio documentation equipment.
A set of powered speakers & a small mixer.
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 (field recorder, 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.
Water bottle.
Personal snacks, comfort foods etc. (the catering is abundant: this is only recommended if there’s specific things you like to have).
Alcoholic drinks if you want them (having a drink is fine, but we prefer the workshop to be a low-alcohol setting.).
Fun things (scores, ideas, games, snorkels, metal detectors, magnifying glasses, magickal objects, skateboards, 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 mostly in shared rooms. There are six beds in the house, and ample floor space in bedrooms for up to an additional six to eight people to stay comfortably with BYO swags/mattresses.
There is only one private room and you will need to bring your own mattress if you want to stay in it. If privacy and quiet time is vitally important to you, you may wish to book separate accommodation at your own expense.
All food will be vegetarian with vegan, gluten free 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, a bit silly and thrown-together. It’s comfortable, but shared rooms mean there is not much privacy in the house itself. Being a good sport about this is a way into the magic of the project. Whilst it’s very fun and exciting, those with a low social battery should be advised it’s a socially busy time, and making space for rest and solo time will be important.
About Aviva
Aviva Endean is a clarinettist, composer, sound artist and performance-maker dedicated to connecting people with each other and their environment through attentive listening. She regularly works across a range of contexts including experimental and improvised music, new chamber music, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Aviva’s work seeks to extend beyond the boundaries of her art form and to reimagine the possibilities of sound. She has collaborated with some of Australia’s most respected arts organisations including The Australian Art Orchestra, Room40, Chamber Made, TURA, and Chunky Move, and was the recipient of the Freedman Music Fellowship (2015), the APRA/AMCOS Art music award (2020/2023), a Greenroom award (best composition for dance 2019) and the Peggy Glanville-Hicks composer’s residency (2021).
Aviva is close friends with many of the Tone List crew; we consider her part of our scene. She is both one of the most acclaimed musicians on the continent and also someone approachable, down to earth, supportive and open. You can read an article written by our previous mentor Jim Denley about her on Disclaimer Journal for a deeper window into her practice.
Accessibility & safety
The house is not wheelchair accessible.
As noted above, the house will no doubt feel busy, vibrant and stimulating. There are usually twelve to sixteen people at Sounding Together. The house is big, but it’ll still feel busy. In general, we 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/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.
Workshop activities can include hiking, spelunking, swimming and kayaking.
Tone List will bring a first aid kit, insect spray, sunscreen and ear plugs. Tone List’s team have up-to-date first aid training and basic knowledge of local risks.
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 amazing time for me to focus on my improvisational practice, without the pressure of outcome, that was profound in unexpected ways, and which isn’t offered in that way anywhere else in Boorloo or beyond. The group was giving, open and risk-taking, embodying a way of being in the world that is imperative to art making and existing more consciously in the world. I have left with a deeper embodied understanding of improvisational music making that feels like a big stepping stone in my practice currently. My sense of listening, and experimentation feel much more expanded, and my artistic community has grown two-fold.” (Lara Dorling, 2025 participant)
“[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 Wadandi 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. We strive to build cultures of sounding & listening that support restorative justice and the Lore of the land.
Tone List stands for a Free Palestine: for peace, for freedom from occupation and apartheid, for self-determination, the right to return for Palestinians in their homelands, and for safe, liberated expression in cultural spaces.