Monday Night Confessions
Matt McMahon + Roger Dean:
Roger Dean and Matt McMahon have performed previously together for a project on one piano, this will be their first outing performing on one piano each! Both musicians have long histories performing in a wide range of musical contexts and they will bring all of this to a performance with improvisation and spontaneity at its heart.
Roger Dean, composer/improviser and research professor in music science, directs the creative ensemble austraLYSIS, which has appeared in 30 countries. With Will Luers and Hazel Smith, he received the international Robert Coover Prize for Electronic Literature (2018). He has performed diversely as bassist, pianist and computer artist: from the Academy of Ancient Music and the Australian Chamber Orchestra to the London Sinfonietta, and from Graham Collier Music to duets with Bailey, Parker, Sandy Evans and Phil Slater. He has created 70 commercial recordings and numerous radio and multimedia pieces. He currently researches improvisation, rhythm perception, music learning methods, and algorithmic music (MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University). Previously he was a full professor of biochemistry in the UK, foundation Director of the Heart Research Institute, Sydney, and then Vice-Chancellor, University of Canberra.
Matt McMahon is a Sydney-based pianist/composer. He has won awards including the National Jazz Award and the Freedman Jazz Fellowship, and appears on Aria and Bell award-winning albums. He leads his own groups and works in collaboration with many of Australia’s most respected musicians, performing within Australia and internationally.
He has released ten albums as a leader or co-leader, and appears on many other albums that feature his compositions and improvisations.
Microfiche:
Sydney based six-piece collective Microfiche presents compelling musical landscapes that traverse alluring paths through improvisation and composition, celebrating the beauty of the unexpected. Their set at Monday Night Confessions will be their first outing since their 2023 EP release ""Live - 107 Residency Highlights"", featuring guest artists Sia Ahmad, Chris Abrahams, Bonniesongs, and Phil Slater.
Since forming as a student jazz ensemble at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2015, Microfiche’s six members have grown into some of Australia’s most esteemed and forward-thinking improvisers, with the collective proving themselves to be one of the most creative and boundary-pushing acts to emerge from Sydney in recent years.
Casting a wide stylistic net that draws upon jazz and experimental approaches, and a recent addition of electronics, Microfiche have developed an expressive and identifiable sound that skirts easy categorisation.
Microfiche has had a flurry of creative activity in recent years, including a 2022 Australian tour, a 2019 tour of Europe (centered around a performance at Copenhagen Jazz Festival), the release of their second studio album 'Everything and Other Infinities' on Portuguese label Creative Sources Rec, and a five-star performance at Phoenix Central Park's 2022 festival STRATA.
Max Alduca - double bass
Nick Calligeros - trumpet
Holly Conner - drums & electronics
Sam Gill - saxophones & percussion
Novak Manojlovic - piano & keyboards
Phillippa Murphy-Haste - clarinets & viola
TICKETS: $25/15
DOORS: 7:30pm
MUSIC: 8:00pm
Supported by Church Street Studios