Sonorous XI: David Chesworth & Gail Priest

A liberation of sonics from the shackles of stereo, Sonorous welcomes audiences to go beyond a traditional listening experience into an expanded sonic universe.

Reaching a landmark eleventh instalment in its Sonorous series, Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) invites sound artists Gail Priest and David Chesworth to engage with the incredible instruments of the MESS collection. Crafting an immersive multichannel electroacoustic performance, these two extraordinary artists push their work in new directions by experimenting with space as a structural compositional concern.

Join us as they explore the potential of sound in space and diffuse these brand-new commissioned works in the acoustically rich Primrose Potter Salon. This is a rare chance to hear electroacoustic works in glorious octaphonic surround sound.

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.  

Gail Priest  

Gail Priest is an artist living on Dharug and Gundungurra land (Katoomba, NSW). Her live exploratory music uses voice, micro sounds of objects, field recordings, and electronics as feeds into a system of transformation. Organic sounds become synthetic, synthetic sounds seem organic, beats and cycles emerge and disintegrate in a push and pull between the figurative and the abstract, the sensual and brutal within an overarching ambience that draws you into the caverns of the unconscious. She is also passionate about multichannel and immersive sonic experiences, highlighting the interdependency of sound and listening. Gail has been performing and exhibiting nationally and internationally for over 20 years. She has several CD releases on her own label, Metal Bitch, as well as other labels including Flaming Pines, Endgame Records and room40.  

David Chesworth 

David Chesworth’s practice spans over four decades and incorporates music composition, sound installations, video art, experimental opera, and performance.  

His soundscapes often draw upon concepts and sonorities to interrogate established cultural and experimental tropes. In doing this, he produces eclectic soundscapes that move between insistent minimalism to more eccentric melodic and rhythmic juxtapositions, only then to be gate-crashed by found sounds.  

David co-founded the influential experimental post-punk/art group Essendon Airport, as well as the independent label Innocent Records, which released his early solo records (50 Synthesizer Greats, Layer on Layer)—outsider classics, now reissued on Chapter Music. He is also known for The Unattended Serge, a celebrated release on Italy’s Planam label of early synth pieces created on MESS’s own Serge paper face.  

More recently, David has created numerous sound installations and video artworks with Sonia Leber, including works featured in the Venice and Sydney Biennales and acquired by museums in Australia and Europe.