Performance: Megan Alice Clune, Repetition Study II: tenfrancs.in

As part of the opening programs for Amongst the Clouds, composer and artist Megan Alice Clune will present the commissioned performance, Repetition Study II: tenfrancs.in (2025).

Clune’s performance builds from a single digital sample: a recording of the artist improvising with the sound effects library of the Fairlight Computer Music Instrument (CMI) at the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS). Developed in Sydney in the late 1970s by Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel, the Fairlight CMI was the world’s first digital synthesiser and sampler. It quickly became an integral part of popular music in the 1980s and was the favoured instrument of Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock, amongst many other musicians. The Fairlight CMI used recordings of acoustic instruments and other naturally occurring sounds and re-pitching them, creating a eclectic audio library that included everything from orchestral strings to spinning coins. Almost half a century on, these heavily mediated, pre-recorded samples are timestamped by the technology of their day.

In Repetition Study II: tenfrancs.in, Clune plays with the potential for oblique associations with sonic material. Working with the repetition of recognisable sounds across long durations, she creates musical textures that are at first familiar, but then gradually destabilise and transform. Her composition is a dynamic experiential container, wherein the listener’s latent memories are the final element in completing the work.