Toowoomba Gothic 1

From a dream of Craig and Franco who owned Cafe Black in Sydney. Coolest cafe ever!

Coffee with Craig and Franco

Snake - Demo

Lola's Lullaby 2

“Mort/Vita” documents my personal experience through three houses and the psychological/emotional affect that these spaces, the people I shared them with, and the transitional periods had upon me. The piece combines manipulated field recordings and images from the three locations in a fifteen-minute presentation and includes objects from my personal working space that can be seen in the included images. The work has developed over time and accumulated experience, revealing itself through unfolding events since the end of 2022. 

[WARNING! Video contains flashing and flickering images.]

Moving house can be very stressful. After living in Toowoomba for a year, and with a relationship of three years coming to an end, I decided to move back to Melbourne. Unfortunately, the house I moved into in Preston was far from ideal. Firstly, it was directly opposite a primary school, the noise from which was quite overwhelming. Added to this was the fact that the sub-letter, a not-so-recovered heroin and methamphetamine addict, quickly turned very nasty. I found myself suffering from severe anxiety, something I had never experience before, which lasted for several weeks until I was fortunate enough to gain new accommodation in a pleasant household in Moonee Ponds. In hindsight, I feel I was already in a depressed state when I left Toowoomba and the circumstances of the Preston residence were the catalyst for this to turn into extremely anxious depression.

This series of events forms the basis of the work: from the relative calm, though ultimately sad time, of my life in Toowoomba; to the anxious and fearful emotions I experienced in Preston; to the relief and stability of the Moonee Ponds residence. The recordings and images are all from within the houses or from nearby.

Mort/Vita

A dark reworking of the Christmas classic. Image by Agam Neiman.

Siren Night

That Place

Inspired by the photographs by Sydney photographer, Tim Ritchie. From the album of the same name: 5 tracks for brass quintet in 5/8 time. Available on my Bandcamp.

D.W. Denham