MNM presents: JUNCTURE

Saturday, May 18th at Glasshouse - Brisbane CBD- Doors at 7pm, Music from 7:30. $15 entry.

// MONICA BROOKS
Monica Brooks has modeled sound works, compositions, and improvisations from piano, computer, field recordings, glasses, radio, and accordion. As a performer she has collaborated with various fabulous folks such as Jim Denley, Dale Gorfinkel, Herminone Johnson, Chris Abrahams, Robbie Avenaim, Kraig Grady, Richard Nuns, Eugene Chadbourne, and Joe Talia.

Long-term projects have toured nationally and internationally, including Great Waitress with legends Laura Altman & Magda Mayas (Konfrontationen 2011, Music Unlimited 2012, All Ears 2014); West Head Project, with Dale Gorfinkel, Anthony Magen & Jim Denley (MONA FOMA 2012), and Women’s Auxiliary Choir with Sonia Z, Loni Cooper, and Ces Hotbake (Various, King St, NSW 2011-2015). From one of her first group shows in 2007, Monica’s sound installation works are often heavily inspired by the technology and usage of radio transmission. Brooks also fronts the eight-piece ensemble, Electronic Resonance Korps, developing works for multiple mono computer performance. Other projects include currently undertaking a Masters (Hons) at University of Western Sydney (Penrith), and sounding like a goose while writing bios. Monica is currently recording a solo album for piano for RIP Society, due for release in 2015.https://soundcloud.com/monica_brooks

// LAURA ALTMAN
Laura Altman is a clarinetist, improviser and composer, born and based in Sydney. She has been an important voice on the Sydney improvised music scene since 2007, playing with groups such as The Splinter Orchestra and Prophets, and collaborating with many other Australian and international musicians. Laura has toured Australia and Europe with a range of projects including the internationally renowned trio ‘Great Waitress’, featuring Monica Brooks on accordion and Berlin-based pianist Magda Mayas, who also have several acclaimed CD and LP releases to their name.

Laura graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a B.Mus Composition (Honours) in 2011, writing both instrumental and electro-acoustic music. She has had works commissioned and performed by Sydney Antiphony, Ensemble Offspring, North Sydney Girls High School and ACRONYM Orchestra and has developed exploratory pieces for primary school students. She has more recently been exploring sound installations.
Laura also plays clarinet in and composes for folk/balkan/jazz ensemble Chaika.

Laura was co-director and co-curator of the NOW now Series and Festival of Exploratory Music from 2010 until 2013, and continues to organise exploratory music events in Sydney. She has co-founded the Sydney exploratory music calendar www.emus.space.

As an educator, Laura has experience teaching private clarinet students, tutoring composition to senior high school music students, facilitating school workshops and also running early-childhood music classes with organisation Bluebell Music.
http://lauraaltman.net

// JIM DENLEY
Spontaneity, site-specificity and collaboration have been central to his work. He sees no clear distinctions between his roles as instrumentalist, improviser and composer.

In 1990 he joined Derek Bailey’s festival, ‘Company’ in London for a series of concerts. Over the decades he has played throughout Australia, Europe, The Americas, Lebanon and Japan.

With MURAL, (Kim Myhr and Ingar Zach) he performed in 2010 at the Rothko Chapel in Houston – a CD of that concert was released in 2011. In April 2013 they performed a 4 hr concert there, which as Tempo, was released as a 3 CD on Sofa in 2015. They performed in Europe, Canada and Mexico in 2016.

In Sydney his main activity is with the Splinter Orchestra, they released ‘MUNGO’, (splitrec 27) a 3 CD set early in 2017. He is intensely interested in unusual contexts – these CDs were recorded in a desert region in far-west NSW.

In 2018 he released a new solo on Sofa 557, ‘Cut Air’. It explores his new ideas of playing the percussive flute, inspired by his love of the flute music from the Solomon Islands.