This was a sound installation presented as part of El Tarro's Garden of Earthy Delights, in Melbourne Australia.

Thirteen participants were fed a soundscape created by Jess Fairfax in response to Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. The soundscape was used as a stimuli for the participants who wrote stories whilst listening to the piece.

The stories were then recorded, mixed in with the soundscape and presented in a chicken coup, dressed with foliage, fruit and flowers. Listeners had to put of headphones underneath the grass-clad bucket to enter into the imaginary paradise. 

These are the stories... 

Jess's Story

Crunching Lives In Sand

facebook.com/xarisound
xari.bandcamp.com

Float Away is the debut single from singer, songwriter and producer X ARI. Produced by Thomas 'Soup' Campbell (MISO, Cumbia Cosmonauts) the track poetically tumbles you to a place to ponder the paradox between the simplicity of natural beauty and the complexity of the universe.

Not settling to one sound, X ARI (Jess Fairfax) is inspired by the emotion and rawness of composers such Olafur Arnolds and the pop-drenched melodies and high end production of artists like The Weeknd. She is fascinated by the science behind the sounds that trigger our beauty bone, those that make you tingle. Layered with harmonies, beats and synths, she tries to piece together the parts that transform sounds to sentiment and story, making us feel and connect to one another.

Written and Composed by Jess Fairfax
Produced by Thomas "Soup" Campbell
Mastered by: Lachlan Carrick

X ARI - Float Away

Purchase the album at: http://themilomix.bandcamp.com

All Our Stories (PBS 106.7FM) radio presenters and producers Jess Fairfax & Leah Avene in collaboration with The Milo Mix, present a  unique project bringing together female and gender diverse poets and producers. The idea came about through their struggle to find good quality audio recordings of local poets to play on the show, while lamenting at the lack of female producers in their music collections.

The way it worked: 8 selected poets recorded a chosen piece which the producers then weaved a soundscape around. The final product is Reverb on Verse, an album of 10 exquisite spoken word pieces accompanied by  emotive soundscapes. 

A big thank you to all the crowdfunding campaign supporters who made the digital release possible! Stay tuned for the official launch party and physical release of the album in late 2016.


All Our Stories is presented each week on PBS 106.7FM Mondays 1-3pm. The program uses music, literature, theatre and poetry as a genesis for discussion around identity, untold histories, human rights and the power of story as an expression of who we are
http://pbsfm.org.au/allourstories

Reverb on Verse is produced by The Milo Mix, an organisation dedicated to facilitating the cross-pollination of diverse art forms and cultures through live events, recording and commissioned works 
themilomix.com

1. Ebony Moncrief X Beatrice - Surrender To Self

It’s 2016, so it’s more than likely you have an online identity. In fact, you may struggle to remember a world without the internet, without a way for your followers to echo your political views, to see what you had for lunch, and to keep up to date on how #blessed you are. But what’s behind the profile pics and status updates? And what can we learn about our real world selves from it?

This week we’re dedicating the entire episode to a feature-length documentary, a beautiful and in-depth look at who we become online from Melbourne-based producer Jess Fairfax.

All music composed by Jess Fairfax, apart from ‘The Looney Tunes theme’

 Executive Producer: Selena Shannon
Made for storytelling podcast All The Best
http://allthebestradio.com/shows/1617-online-identities/ 

Online Identities

Recorded live at the Worker's Club on May 18 2016. 
A song about the beauty of solitude.

Lyrics:
VERSE 1
Pound Hard
Wave against rock
Under your blue sky eyes I weep
I'm time to fill, kill it while it crawls
Snail pace slime against my skin

I'm lost in your life
A distraction from my mind
I yearn to make you feel like he did
When he sand that song that tickled a heart
A drew a picture of a girl called nostalgia

CHORUS
I weep under your blue sky eyes

VERSE 2
Pound hard
Wave against rock
Under your blue sky eyes I weep
Until she finds that peace
Sitting on her rocky throne
Alone, those waves they point to the sky
They move in time with the moon
They gesture for silence
A time to find peace and be wise
A time to find peace and be wise

BRIDGE
So she moves in time with the moon
In the silence of night
Under your blue sky eyes
I find the freedom to love
Alone, sitting on my rocky throne
Alone, I find the freedom to love


Desktop

Pound Hard - Live at the Worker's Club (X ARI)

A poem written and composed for an audio doco I made of relationships and expectations. Check out the full doco here:

https://soundcloud.com/fairtrax/relation-expectation?in=fairtrax/sets/radio-documentaries

Total Sum

On the latest episode of The Milo Mix Radio, Jess & Nhatty are joined by special guest Zelalem Negatu to chat about the effect of protest on community. At times it fragments societal bonds, other times it brings people together in solidarity and for those living in the Diaspora it can be heartbreaking watching the struggle from afar. 

themilomix.com
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

facebook.com/themilomixradio/

The Milo Mix Radio Episode 5: Protest & Community

So April is #poetrymonth and to celebrate my rad-town friend Abdulrahman Hammoud created the #TheDirtyThirty, encouraging young and old and in between to write a poem each day for the entire month. He provides daily prompts and then we go on our merry way to do what we wish with them. I'm attempting the challenge and have decided to take it that step further to create soundscapes to accompany my writing. This was my #dayone creation, a free write all about babies, bodies and autumn seedlings. I encourage you all to take part in this amazing initiative and get your poetics on!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thedirtythirty/

The Dirty Thirty Day One - Autumn Seedings

So April is #poetrymonth and to celebrate my rad-town friend Abdulrahman Hammoud created the #TheDirtyThirty, encouraging young and old and in between to write a poem each day for the entire month. He provides daily prompts and then we go on our merry way to do what we wish with them. I'm attempting the challenge and have decided to take it that step further to create soundscapes to accompany my writing. This was my #daytwo creation,  our prompt was to write a poem to April's Fool, but this sparked a memory for me that needed to be written.

www.facebook.com/groups/thedirtythirty/

The Dirty Thirty Day Two - April's Fool

Jess Fairfax is a creative audio producer, radio maker, musician and presenter. She releases music under the alias X ARI, presents a weekly radio show on PBS 106.7FM, a podcast on The Milo Mix along with freelance creative audio projects for ABC Radio National, All The Best and the Community Radio Network.

Jess Fairfax

Popular tracks