Exhibits,
ANTARMUKA, James Howard, San, James Nguyen and Victoria Pham, Gillian Daniel, Kristine Tan Sonic Travellers
Opening: Wednesday June 5th, 6-8pm Dates: June 5th -29th![](http://w.busprojects.org.au/media/pages/program/sonic-travellers/c3c39cc8c7-1718337666/240506-bus-projects-web-1-1200x1200.jpg)
Sonic Travellers seeks to discover shared connections between sonic pasts and presents, exploring regional affinities between Australia and Southeast Asia.
In their Australian debut, Rosemainy Buang and Syafiq Halid of ANTARMUKA (Singapura) feature Nusantara instruments in a new sound installation composed of deconstructed gamelan and Malay percussive elements, electronic sounds and vocal experimentation. Naarm-based composer James Howard (Jaadwa) builds a space of sanctuary, inviting listeners to drift through spiralling time-streams by way of language, electronic tones, and echoed histories. A new video work by Victoria Pham and James Nguyen (Việt Nam / Warrane / Naarm) meditates on the sacred Moon of Pejeng in Bali, the largest single-cast drum from the Bronze age that still remains in-situ, and is part of a longstanding regional sound practice and research on the Đông Sơn drum.
Curated by Gillian Daniel and Kristine Tan (proto projects), Sonic Travellers considers more expansive possibilities for the reclamation of cultural heritage through time, space and form.
Opening Performance:
Tuesday 4 June, 7.30pm sharp
Brunswick Mechanics Institute
270 Sydney Rd
Brunswick VIC 3056
Featuring ANTARMUKA and special guests San.
Entrance is free but please RSVP here.
Presented by Bus Projects and supported by Next Wave.
With thanks to Tim Denshire-Key
Design by Kristine Tan
ANTARMUKA is helmed by Syafiq Halid and Rosemainy Buang. Formed in Singapura on the foundation of a decade-long friendship, ANTARMUKA experiments with finding the balance between analogue sensibilities and the digital world, with influences from the Nusantara region. Audiences can expect darker shades of Malay rhythms and Indonesian gamelan elements with electronic sounds, beats, and voice experimentations. In 2022, the duo released their first single KRANK, with a debut performance at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre. ANTARMUKA was also featured in Nusasonic Ho Chi Minh City, an initiative of the Goethe-Institute. In 2023, ANTARMUKA performed at Singapore Night Festival 2023 and Theatre Works, Singapore. In 2024, they collaborated with Azrin Abdullah, Singapore’s finest Oud player, in the Light to Night Festival at National Gallery Singapore.
James Howard is a Jaadwa composer with a contemporary music practice investigating the soundscapes of Country and place. Howard utilises electronic instruments and production techniques, merging voice, analogue synthesisers, samples, and field recordings. His compositions enact reconnection with his Indigenous identity, often layering personal, family, and community-driven narratives into improvised art music. Howard has worked with a range of organisations, including Australian Dance Theatre, RISING Festival, YIRRAMBOI, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Howard holds a PhD (Indigenous Arts and Culture), from the Faculty of Fine Art and Music, University of Melbourne for his project, Composing Cultural Reclamation: Reconnecting to an Indigenous Cultural Heritage through a Music Practice (2022).
RE:SOUNDING is an international multi-art form and research project led by James Nguyenand Victoria Pham. Nguyen works in Australia and Vietnam. His mixed practice of videos and installations are ways to think more openly about the world. Nguyen has a PhD from the University of NSW, and trained at the Sydney College of Arts, the National Art School, and UnionDocs Centre for Documentary Arts (NYC). Spanning art, technology and science, Pham is an artist, writer and composer and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She is based between Paris and Sydney. Central to her work is sound where her work is driven by explorations into mycology, practices of decolonisation and listening deeply.
San is a Naarm-based quartet originally from the shores of Singapore. Inspired by shoegaze, postrock and doom and influenced by the underground scenes of Southeast Asia from the 1990s and beyond, San explores the transportive possibilities of sound through swirling atmospheres, dreamy melodies and jarring walls of noise.
proto projects is a curatorial collective consisting of Kristine Tan and Gillian Danielwho work across Singapore, London and Australia. They are interested in questions of decolonisation, diaspora and cultural affinity and are looking for ways to mine the past to think about the future.
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