We Called It New Music

Friday April 11 | 8-11PM
Saturday April 12 | 3-11PM

We Called It New Music is a two-day celebratory performance event featuring experimental artists who performed at the artist-run Clifton Hill Community Music Centre (CHCMC) between 1976 and 1983, alongside contemporary musicians responding to its legacy.

A groundbreaking venue in Australia — Clifton Hill Community Music Centre blurred the lines between performance, music-making, filmmaking, and installation art. Musicians made films, visual artists made music, and critics and theorists took the stage.

CHCMC was a vibrant hub where young artists in the late 70s established a community space away from the cultural mainstream, where they created, performed, debated, and occasionally clashed in the dark, grungy spaces of a former organ factory. It was a place where emerging postmodernism met countercultural aesthetics and new methodologies.

Founded in 1976 by Ron Nagorcka and Warren Burt, Clifton Hill Community Music Centre operated on a new unique model: free entry for audiences and no expectation of payment for performers. This freed artists from commercial pressures, allowing them to experiment without constraints. As Ron put it, it was a space for research—"not for career builders or critics." He and Warren envisioned it as “community-oriented,” embracing an open, inclusive ethos. Its legacy continues to influence experimental practice in Australia today.

We Called It New Music invites audiences to experience two days of performances and related events, including works originally performed at Clifton Hill Community Music Centre, alongside reinterpretations and responses from current and emerging artists.

Curated by David Chesworth with Liquid Architecture and co-presented with Astra

Essendon Airport / Mia Alexander / Ernie Althoff / Judy Annear / Jessica Aszodi / Arsam Samadi Bahrami / Ros Bandt / Bodies of Infinite Divine and Eternal Spirit / Warren Burt / Who Cares? / David Chesworth / Carolyn Connors / →↑→ / Les Gilbert / Clinton Green / Helen Grogan / Kassie Junkeer / Levi Liauw / Rainer Linz / Sachin de Silva Silzedrek  / Ron Nagorcka / James Rushford / Bridget Small / Paul Fletcher / Jayne Stevenson

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