Bringing together the textural and dynamic capabilities of the cello, with an extensive palate of sampled and abstracted found sounds, this collaboration between Australian sound artists Anthea Caddy and Thembi Soddell generates a provocative and tense sonic world. Their work embraces the nature of opposition, fusing the extremes – noise and quiet, composed and improvised, acoustic and electronic – to become a unified yet unstable sound, laced with subtlety, aggression, chaos and intrigue.

The duos unflinching dedication to exploratory music incorporates sonic, spatial and performative gestures into a singular act of extreme expression. There is a noesis involved in experiencing their live performance, a knowing that is sub-conscious, and teases the liminal points of perception and awareness.

ANTHEA CADDY (right)


Anthea Caddy is an Australian cellist who applies a
distinctive and idiosyncratic set of techniques to her instrument. Exploiting the cello’s textural, spatial and dynamic capabilities she draws reference points from electro-acoustic and contemporary composition to inform her performance. Interested in the play between electronic and acoustic sound, she seeks to consolidate both the conceptual and practical aspects of these two media, articulating techniques and concepts indigenous to digital composition in her performances and recordings.

Anthea’s unique sound has resulted in collaborative
contributions to a number of projects in a diversity of contexts. She regularly collaborates with sound artists Thembi Soddell and Philip Samartzis resulting in the duo release of ‘Iland’ with Soddell and as part of the ensemble of ‘Absence and Presence’ with Samartzis released on ‘Unheard Spaces’. She has done numerous collaborations in media based projects for video installation, dance, live sound design/score for theatre, film and video. As a curator she has co-curated for Liquid Architecture Festival in Melbourne and for the video group DotMov. As a performer she is a recognised member of the Australian improvised and sound art scene touring nationally and internationally. Anthea has a degree in Media Arts with honours specialising in Sound from RMIT University, Melbourne.

contact: antheacaddy [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] au

THEMBI SODDELL (left)

Thembi Soddell’s solo work lies deeply rooted in the density and complexity of one's emotional world. Drawing inspiration from dreams and personal psychology, she works primarily with the sampler to manipulate and abstract the external world creating both a vicious and alluring sonic experience. With a focus on extreme texture and depth variation, she plays with the limits of audible dynamics, pushing the threshold of both silence and noise, toying with the listener’s sense of expectation. Her compositional technique has a distinct, highly stylised edge, rigid and concisely constructed. At times referential of electroacoustic and classical composition, yet adding components of sheer noise and musique concrete. Thembi’s work has been reviewed internationally and is regularly sought for inclusion in experimental festivals and curated events.

Based in Melbourne, Thembi is an active member of
Australia’s sound art community, having performed at all major festivals on the east coast of Australia and toured regionally and nationally promoting her 2 solo CD releases. Her work was featured in Variable Resistance: 10 hours of Sound from Australia at the San Francisco MOMA, and can be found on many compilations including Liquid Architecture’s WIRE sampler and Dorobo Records Document 03. In 2000 she won a Melbourne Fringe Festival Award for a collaborative 8-channel sound installation, The Sound of Your Name is a Song. Thembi is a graduate with first class honours in sound from RMIT University’s Fine Art Department and also assists in running the new Australian experimental music label, Cajid Media.

Full CV at http://cajid.com/thembi
contact: thembi [at] cajid [dot] com