Robin Fox - The History of Australian Electronic Music

Experience the history of Australian electronic music with acclaimed artist Robin Fox.  

As part of Open House Melbourne 2025, Melbourne Recital Centre throws open its doors to welcome music-lovers, architecture and acoustic aficionados, sound buffs, curious explorers and discoverers.

Drawing threads from the early free music experiments of pianist and composer Percy Grainger, Melbourne Recital Centre's 2025 Artist in Residence Robin Fox takes listeners on a journey through the Australian electronic music psyche.

Weaving stories that combine institutional and underground scenes, witness live demonstrations featuring antique instruments from the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) collection, such as the legendary Fairlight CMI digital synthesizer, in this rare opportunity to experience Australian electronic music history firsthand.

Tickets

Standard $10

A Transaction Fee between $4 and $8.50 applies to orders made online and by phone. Delivery Fees may also apply. A ticket limit of six is in place online to ensure fair ticket access for all. Want to bring a bigger party? Call our Box Office during business hours on (03) 9699 3333 to book.

About the Artists

Robin Fox

Robin Fox is an internationally recognised Australian-based audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art and composition for contemporary dance. His audio-visual laser works, which synchronise sound and visual electricity in hyper-amplified 3D space, have been performed in over 60 cities worldwide.

His critically acclaimed work TRIPTYCH premiered at Unsound Krakow late 2022 and has toured extensively since with highlights including headline shows at Berlin Atonal, Barbican (London), Ephemera (Warsaw), OHM Festival Brisbane among many others. TRIPTYCH was awarded the Isao Tomita Special Prize at Ars Electronica 2023. Recent large scale audio-visual works include ICON which illuminated the Sydney Opera House for its 50th birthday, Night Sky for Brisbane Festival, Aqua Luma for Mona Foma 2021, Library of Light for Illuminate Adelaide 2021 BEACON for Mona Foma 2022, and MONOCHORD for Rising Festival 2022.

In 2016, he became the founding director of MESS, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to giving everyone access to the entire history of electronic musical instruments. He holds a PhD in composition from Monash University and an MA in musicology. The latter documents the history of experimental music in Melbourne from 1975-1979.

Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) 

Founded by Robin Fox and Byron J Scullin, MESS is dedicated to the creation of electronic sound and music. Representing one of the most eclectic and historically significant collections of electronic instruments worldwide, the ever-growing MESS collection is made available to creatives and the broader public to learn, play, and record with hundreds of electronic instruments at their fingertips. For more information visit www.mess.foundation.