ABSORBED - Festival Preview
36 outsider, dance and experimental performances, a festival inside the club, connecting to Miscellania, and how it should flow and feel like a really good party
Noah chats to Kavil about all things ‘Absorbed IV’, an event showcasing some of Australia’s finest underground, outsider, dance, and experimental acts over two days as well as the special connection to Miscellania.
Can you tell us how the concept for ABSORBED came about?
ABSORBED was born shortly after the launch of my label, Absorb and its first release, The World I Want Would Be Celestial, Wet. It's a compilation I pieced together of ambient and experimental music made during the lockdowns, by artists that I love dearly like Lily Tait, Nick Ashwood, Bridget Chappell and more. I actually listened to the record from start-to-finish recently, and still find it to be beautiful and pensive, and a true testament of the time. My friend and eventual collaborator, Clementine Girard Foley, urged me to celebrate the music when the restrictions allowed for it and it didn't take much convincing before we began hatching plans for a launch that would become largely unrelated to the quiet music featured on the release.
We were all emerging from isolation, some stronger from it but many bruised, and all craving an experience of hearing music together. The first ABSORBED celebrated that opportunity and consolidated a number of connections between artists and internet friends in Naarm and Eora, which has remained a significant point of connection throughout the party's history.
Importantly, we drew a lot from Ham Laosthakul's (vale) legendary Soi event in 2019, which broke from the city’s dominant deep house and techno landscape, and championed abrasive and glitchy experimental dance music. Ham's curatorial approach disregarded expectations, embracing the ugly stuff. He was a total visionary.
Is there a special connection with Miscellania?
Yes, absolutely. ABSORBED has been held at Miscellania since the very start and wouldn't exist in the same form without it. The festival is now co-run with Sasha Logan, who is one of the bookers at Misc & a best friend of mine, so there is certainly a lot of intermingling going on. To touch on Sasha quickly - he was actually instrumental to the label's origins, as Absorb was founded in response to an opportunity I was given by him when he worked at the DIY venue, Crazy Arms. Sasha reached out and asked me to curate a night before the venue closed, showcasing some of the experimental music I liked and had probably chewed his ear off about.
I'd been throwing events for years with friends and coordinating a mix series called Bleus, but the Absorb project was my first hurrah at working solo and sharing something personal that I felt completely aligned with. I was always scheming and making bootleg releases, so in many ways, the label existed for much earlier (in my head) but being asked to organise the Crazy Arms event necessitated certain administrative tasks, like choosing a name, which made it all real. Once I started the label, there was no one I needed to convince of my ideas and I had a mouthpiece for wacky electronic and experimental music that intrigued me, and a vessel for exploring it more and more.
Back to Miscellania, and now working with Sasha on the fourth edition of ABSORBED - it's a dream.
The venue values experimentation and boundary-pushing, and is committed to working with all kinds of folk. It's a community hub for so many of us. I'm really grateful for Misc, and have had so many life-changing music experiences in the space.
It’s an amazing selection of experimental and dance artists from all over with a focus on underground music. Talk us through your curation process?
Thank you! The programming has always been about spotlighting the edges of dance music and seeing what we can get away with, without compromising on functionality too much. I think "festival inside a club" is the most accurate description of the weekend, because despite the strong focus on outsider music and experimental performances, it should flow and feel like a really good party throughout. There are 36 performances scheduled for this year's edition, which sprawl across as many hours continuously. ABSORBED starts at midday on Saturday with a live-focussed listening afternoon, including a dual performance by 90's heartthrob indie outfit, The Cat's Miaow and their offshoot band, Hydroplane as well as the twenty piece Melbourne Georgian Choir. The night progresses into crazed left-field stuff, including a live reading and drum solo, amidst bass music, "IDM" as they call it and experimental techno. There's a debut collaboration between Naarm moodboard icon, YL Hooi & John T. Gast of 5 TEMPLE GATE / discogs fame in the evening and I'll be performing alongside guitar shred lord crwlr, & dancers Mara Galagher, Max Burgess and Nikki Tarling.
Day 1 climaxes with a closing performance by the seminal, ∈Y∋ (or Yamantaka Eye), who readers might know/should know from his cult projects, Boredoms, Hanatarsh, Naked City, and collaborations with Sonic Youth, Ween, Nirvana - the list is endless. The lore around this guy is something else, I really can't believe he's playing.
Next, we host a not-so-secret interim party because Miscellania's licence ends at 3am, before returning at 7am on Sunday morning. The morning section this year features some of our favourite DJs, including a special sunrise slot for Tangerine (or Clementine), who has been a pivotal collaborator on previous editions of ABSORBED. There are some live performances, and we curate upended breaks & euphoria to soundtrack the annual kick-on moment before moving downstairs, into music that tests the subs again. I'm really excited about kāmna playing & the set by legendary vinyl turntablist, Mark N (of Bloody Fist Records). Like the night before, there are twists and turns (Sunday includes a troupe of puppeteers), before Tarquin Manek, Sam Karmel and Trevelyan Clay play out as Bum Creek for a very rare performance. The guys played with Horse MacGyver at the Make It Up 25th Birthday festival in 2023 but otherwise, it's been 10 years! There's a recent interview between the band and my friend, Charlie Miller who had them on his radio show, Frantic Items, which I would highly recommend listening to ahead of the weekend. It's a rollercoaster, not for the faint of heart lol, check it here. After Bum Creek, the night closes with an extended set by DJ Marcelle, who uses multiple turntables to fearlessly warp and weave punk, dub, rock, dance records into entirely new compositions. The DJ's DJ. We've tried to make this booking happen for the last three years so it'll be a really special moment.
That's just a quick overview of some of the happenings this year, but every slot and section is crucial and contributes to the greater whole of the weekend. The process of curating it starts about 8 months before the event, and we meet every week to flesh out the details and go back and forth until we've explored all possibilities.
For year 4's program, Sasha and I have made a concerted effort to celebrate the individuals who have made significant contributions to the local experimental music ecology and inspired us personally.
A huge chunk of the lineup are involved in community radio or run labels, and everyone is worth deep diving into on the internet.
Can you tell us about your involvement with Make It Up Club and your interest in improvised music?
I was asked to co-curate Make It Up Club by Annalee Koernig a few years ago, who has been involved with its operations since 2001 (or thereabouts). For those that don't know, Make It Up Club is a weekly concert series of avant-garde, improvised music and sound art which has provided a regular platform for experimental music & performance in Naarm since 1998. We're at Bar Open every Tuesday, up the stairs. I owe many of my best ideas to MIUC, and Annalee too, who is an incredible source of knowledge. In this context, I've learnt a lot about improvisation and what makes it "good", which is just the capacity of all involved to listen actively and lend themselves completely to sound.
Once played, all music forms as part of a dialogue and its overarching experience is a shared responsibility between sound maker and receiver. The music is made with the audience, not at them.
Increasingly, I think you can feel this ethos in all of the label's activities, including ABSORBED, where the programming is actually reliant on a culture of dedicated listening. Many of our supporters are gifted listeners and that's reflected back to the performances on stage. We're very lucky.
Your label turns five years old this year! Can you tell us how you manage it along with all the live events?
Five years strong! There are three massive releases scheduled for the year and I'm really excited to share them.
What were the highlights from the festival last year and any learnings you’ve taken into this year’s event?
It's really hard to say... one favourite moment was bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit at peak time on Saturday night. The white lighting and haze... still lingers... Also, the ZULI set unlocked something in me. I asked Sasha, who reminded me of two surprise moments: MC Yallah rapping with NERVE, Aarti Jadu and Tarquin Manek and the then choir at Middlezorb (interim party between Day 1 & 2) who covered Paris, Texas by Lana Del Rey. When you know, you know...
How many attendees did you have for 2024 and how many are you hoping for this year?
It's mind boggling - last year we had 850 or so people come through the whole weekend, which is not including all of the artists who are involved ! It's amazing that so many people commit to the whole journey but we also curate little chapters, recognising that not everyone can be at Miscellania all weekend. There will be plenty of tickets on the door again this year, dip in, dip out!
What are you most looking forward to for the event?
The beauty of these weekends is that they feature our favorite artists in the entire world, very literally. So much good music. I'm excited for the ride and to be able to share it with so many other music lovers. I think it's worth mentioning that Sasha and I have met every Monday since July last year, so we are very much looking forward to sharing that work with our loved ones, who have been endlessly supportive throughout.
Are there plans underway for 2026? and can you see this continuing on for as long as you have the energy?
Ask again in a week's time 😅
