Sumn Conduit

About

Sumn Conduit is the recently formed duo project of Indigenous Australian improviser and experimental vocalist Sonya Holowell and module synthesist/composer Ben Carey.

Working across new music performance, electronic music composition and improvisation, Sonya and Ben 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.

Between them, the duo have collaborated and performed with numerous artists and ensembles across Australia, such as Ensemble Offspring, Australian Art Orchestra, Sydney Chamber Opera, The Song Company, Australia Ensemble, Decibel, The Splinter Orchestra, Omega Ensemble, Zubin Kanga, Jon Rose and others as both solo and collaborative artists. Their work has appeared at Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, Resonant Bodies Festival, Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art, Vivid Sydney, Sydney Biennale, NOW now Festival, Totally Huge New Music Festival, Festival de Mùsica Electroacùstica (Chile), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), and New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (USA).