Distractions One: Variants

Sparrow (Piano Mix)

'Valve Is Released' by Sumn Conduit is Edition No.13 (NWAED013) in the New Editions artist series, curated by New Weird Australia. 
newweirdaustralia.bandcamp.com

Sumn Conduit is the duo project of Dharawal/Inuk vocalist
Sonya Holowell , and modular synthesist and composer Ben
Carey . Working across new music performance, electronic
music composition and improvisation, Holowell and Carey
have quickly become two of Sydney’s most exciting
independent artists in the field. Within their unique pairing
of the acoustic and electronic, the duo investigates the
potential for oneness and multiplicity, exploring the threshold
where one ends and the other begins. The duo navigates a
spectrum of improvisational and compositional practices
using a range of text, visual and conceptual scores as
provocations for sounding. Their performances are strikingly
dynamic, incorporating extended techniques, polyrhythms
and a rich genre ambiguity resulting from their diverse
backgrounds. Like a shifting storm, their sound can be both
fragile and heavy, and in this duo the material pours out.

As both solo and collaborative artists their work has appeared
at the Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, Resonant Bodies
Festival, Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art, Vivid
Sydney, Sydney Biennale, the NOW now Festival, Totally
Huge New Music Festival, the Festival de Mùsica
Electroacùstica (Chile), the Huddersfield Contemporary
Music Festival (UK) and the New York City Electroacoustic
Music Festival (USA). Carey’s latest solo release
METASTABILITY was released on 45rpm vinyl in June
2023 (Hospital Hill). Holowell has released two albums,
Mungo with Splinter Orchestra (Splitrec) and Afternoon
Tea at Six with Eishan Ensemble (Art As Catharsis).

In June 2022, after torrential rain washed out a planned
Sydney performance, Sumn Conduit retreated to Carey's
studio to record what would become the duo's first studio
recording. Exploring a new methodology, the duo worked
from a pre-created text source; a graphic/text score by
Holowell which had been previously published in ADSR
Zine. The result is Valve Is Released, a longform
performance subdivided into six tracks, connecting air and
steel, flesh and electricity.

Sumn Conduit - What Energy | NWAED013

Trying to write and upload bits and pieces, at least once a month in 2025.

Twin Beak

Jamming with piano loops taken from ‘Open Again Eventually’ (from my 2020 EP Bird Rib). 

fugue state

Taken from 'Sudden Debt', Edition No.15 (NWAED015) in the New Editions series, curated by New Weird Australia. Available on 140gsm clear vinyl, digital and streaming from 1st August 2025.

https://www.newweirdaustralia.com/works/sudden-debt-sudden-debt-nwaed015

Exploring the space between bleak pop, minimalist post-punk and dissonant noise-rock, the Naarm / Melbourne trio strip music back to a form that is raw, unflinching, and intimate. 

Laura Jean Hyland (she/her) Drums 
Patrick Hatch (he/him) Bass 
Jonathon McCarthy (he/him) Guitar / Vocals

Written by Sudden Debt.
Recorded, mixed, produced, and mastered by Finn Keane at Head Gap, Melbourne.
Artwork by Sean Gordon.

Sudden Debt

Sudden Debt - TXT | NWAED015

This is another track made purely by recycling bits of the recording of Rob Davidson's String Quartet, First Movement. In Logic, I used the scissor, time-stretch, reverse, reverb & flex tools to completely mess this up!

Experiment 2 (recycling String Quartet by Rob Davidson)

This is a place for me to put random audio experiments and provide feedback to my students. My real soundcloud account is here: http://soundcloud.com/leahkardos

Experiment 2 (recycling String Quartet by Rob Davidson)

LeahsExperiments