SAFE IN SOUND 2026: Day 1
Safe in Sound 2026: Inclusive Experimental Sound Event Returns to Melbourne
Safe in Sound, the celebrated experimental music event, is returning to Melbourne’s public venues for the fourth year, curated by renowned experimental artist and SIS Artistic Director Robbie Avenaim.
Presented in partnership and co-curated with Jolt Arts, Make It Up Club and Liquid Architecture, the festival showcases Melbourne’s thriving experimental music and sound art communities whilst providing a platform for mentored and professional artists with disabilities to perform alongside seasoned professional sound artists from around Australia.
Who's playing
Day 1
Sat 31 October
Footscray Drill Hall, 395 Barkly St, Footscray, Melbourne
Doors: 5–10 pm
- Alessio Diletosso & Joe Manton — 6:15 pm
- Jim Denley, Carolyn Connors, Esther Tuddenham and Steven Hagiliassis — 7:00 pm
- Khaled Chahine and his Accidental Orchestra - feat Tarquin Manek, Moses Carr, Genevieve Fry and Rohan Rebeiro — 7:40 pm
- Daniel Munnery & Tangerine — 8:20 pm
- Robert Seamons Propagation Band. Featuring; Danny Heifetz, Angus Leslie, Phil Day and Beth Otenstein — 9:00 pm
- MC Stuart Flenley with Charlie McCarthy
- DJs Antediluvian Rocking Horse & Astrid Hullick
Tickets
Day 1
Full Price: $30
Concession: $20
Day 2
Full Price: $20
Concession: $15
Weekend Pass $40
Support workers: Free
About the artists
Day 1
Sat 31 October · Footscray Drill Hall, 395 Barkly St, Footscray, Melbourne
Alessio Diletosso & Joe Manton
6:15 pm
Composer, musician and electronic music innovator Joe Manton presents a composition that becomes the landscape for an encounter with Alessio Diletosso. Using his interactive systems, Alessio responds to the structure, textures and ideas within Manton’s music, exploring and revealing its hidden possibilities through movement, sound and technology.
Manton brings more than two decades of experience in electronic music, composition, software development and instrument building to the work. Alessio’s practice similarly sits at the intersection of music, technology and interaction, using custom-built systems to create an expressive and highly individual musical language.
Rather than simply performing the composition, Alessio enters into it — responding to its rhythms, textures and sonic architecture to uncover what might lie beneath the surface. The result is a live exploration of the inner worlds of Manton’s composition, where written music, interactive technology and human interpretation become inseparable.
Jim Denley, Carolyn Connors, Esther Tuddenham and Steven Hagiliassis
7:00 pm
Four distinctive voices from Melbourne's experimental music community come together in a spontaneous meeting of breath, voice, electronics, poetry and sonic exploration. Jim Denley brings his unique approach to flute and improvisation, creating delicate and unexpected musical pathways. Carolyn Connors explores the extremes of the human voice, moving between song, spoken word and theatrical expression. Esther Tuddenham blends poetry, voice and intermedia practices, while Steven Hagiliassis draws on Greek folk traditions, religious texts and shredding vocal sound worlds.
Khaled Chahine and his Accidental Orchestra - feat Tarquin Manek, Moses Carr, Genevieve Fry and Rohan Rebeiro
7:40 pm
Co Curated by Safe in Sound and Liquid Architecture. Over the last few years, Khaled Chahine He has been developing his voice and music through the Dale Gorfinkels Outhearproject. His Accidental Orchestra blends Theatre of the Absurd, Pataphysical performance, Surrealist storytelling and Fluxus event-scores into a wonderfully unhinged live broadcast experience. Chahine selects different story genres and launches into them in real time, with characters, narratives and situations emerging through improvisation. An ensemble of artists curated by Liquid Architecture featuring Tarquin Manek, Moses Carr, Genevieve Fry and Rohan Rebeiro, underscores and responds to his unfolding story, creating an improvised soundtrack that shifts with the characters, situations and twists as they emerge. Together, they twist, stretch and reinvent the familiar tropes of radio drama, creating a live broadcast somewhere between comedy, theatre, sound art and complete absurdity.
Daniel Munnery & Tangerine
8:20 pm
Daniel Munnery and Tangerine (Clementine Girard-Foley) come together for a new collaboration merging exploratory electronics, dark metallic textures and emotive melody. Munnery, an avant-garde electronic sound artist known for his work with JOLT Arts, The Amplified Elephants and Noise Scavengers, meets Tangerine’s distinctive world of atmospheric electronics and adventurous DJ culture. Together, they venture into uncharted sonic waters — an improvised collision of texture, electronics and melody.
Robert Seamons Propagation Band. Featuring; Danny Heifetz, Angus Leslie, Phil Day and Beth Otenstein
9:00 pm
Guitarist, songwriter and gardener Robert Seamons takes the stage with his all star band.
Robert Seamons writes songs in the great tradition of the ballad, drawing on melodic worlds reminiscent of Gordon Lightfoot, Jad Fair, The Beatles and the Bee Gees, while following his own wonderfully idiosyncratic path. His songs range from heartfelt ballads to curious observations on plants, gardens and the everyday world around him. Over the last few years, Robert has been developing his voice and music through Dale Gorfinkels Outhear project.
For this performance, Seamons is joined by master accompanists Danny Heifetz, original drummer of Mike Patton’s legendary Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Angus Leslie, multi-instrumentalist & founder of Melbourne yacht-rock, soul group Sex on Toast , Beth Otenstein on keyboards and Phil Day on tuba.
Together, they bring Seamons’ music to life with musicianship, warmth and playful musicality — connecting his intimate, eccentric songwriting with three musicians from very different corners of contemporary music.
Both days
31st Oct & 1st November · Drill Hall and Jolted Arts Space
Stuart Flenley with Charlie McCarthy
Master of Ceremonies
Taking on the prestigious role of Master of Ceremonies is Stuart Flenley — host, guide, commentator and keeper of festival order (at least in theory).
Joining Stuart is Charlie McCarthy, a charmingly opinionated ventriloquist doll following in the grand tradition of Charlie McCarthy — the legendary wooden wit who became one of the most famous figures in the history of ventriloquism.
Together, Stuart and Charlie will navigate the unpredictable world of Safe in Sound Festival, introducing artists, offering observations and attempting to maintain control over an event where anything can happen.
One has the microphone. One has the moving mouth. Neither can be completely trusted.
Expect charm, chaos and a little wooden wisdom.
Appearing both on the 31st Oct and 1st Nov
31st Oct & 1st Nov · Footscray Drill Hall & Jolted Arts Northcote
DJ Antediluvian Rocking Horse & Astrid Bolcskey Hullick
DJ 2 (aka Paul Wain), from the legendary duo DJs Antediluvian Rocking Horse, joins forces with Astrid Bolcskey-Hullick
Spinning records and specially prepared records side by side, Paul and Astrid will constantly interrupt, collide with and hijack each other’s mixes—layering beats over noise, sound effects over songs, and records over records.
Part DJ battle, part improvised sound collage, the pair will build an eclectic, unpredictable and increasingly tangled mix, where interruption becomes composition and almost anything might find its way onto the turntables.
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