SIWJF - Sumn Conduit plus Bonnie Stewart Solo

Tonight - an opening set from Bonnie Stewart solo, followed by Sumn Conduit - Sonya Holowell and Ben Carey.

Sumn Conduit is the duo project of Dharawal vocalist, composer and writer Sonya Holowell, and modular synthesist and composer Ben Carey. Their work challenges hegemonies of power through form, content and process. The duo navigates a spectrum of improvisational and compositional practices using a range of text, visual and conceptual scores as provocations for sounding. Their dynamic improvised performances are rendered with skilful artistry honed individually and over many years working together. The Sumn Conduit soundworld incorporates dense electroacoustic textures, virtuosic vocalisations, polyrhythms and a rich genre ambiguity resulting from the musicians' diverse backgrounds. The result is uniquely vast; spanning from intimate and intricate, to gut-wrenching and bass-heavy.

Bonnie Stewart is a composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist working across songwriting, jazz and free improvisation. She recently released her second Bonniesongs album, Strangest Feeling, and performs regularly with projects including BoNo, Panghalina and Home Is, as well as other collaborations. For this special debut solo performance, Bonnie explores the space between songwriting and improvisation, drawing on voice, melody and lyrical fragments alongside percussive textures, rhythm and sound. Taking ideas and instincts from her songwriting into a solo setting where voice, texture and rhythm can take on new shapes, the performance opens into an intimate and exploratory space, allowing the music to shift and unfold.