STATEMENT

My practice is compelled by an ethic of relational listening. It explores qualities of attention and attunement.

BIO

Simon Charles (he/him) is a composer, saxophonist and electro-acoustic musician, whose work is compelled by an ethic of relational listening. His work represents an aesthetic sensibility toward contingency, fragility and reciprocity, and the positionalities from which listening can inhabit.

Charles’ practice is informed by history of experimentalism in Australian music, having studied with Anthony Pateras, Ros Bandt, Jim Denley, Warren Burt. He has performed at Clinton Green’s Quite Noise festival (Shame File music), and has been affiliated with experimental music organization AvantWhatever, through record releases and festival performances. He has performed on multiple occasions at Naarm’s Make It Up Club, and is affiliated with Borloo’s experimental music organisation, Tone List through various appearances at the Audible Edge Festival.

Charles is a member of the Phonetic Orchestra, which emerged through Naarm’s creative music scene in the early 2010, with members now based in Naarm, Berlin, and Noongar Ballardong country. This ensemble comprises backgrounds in experimental, contemporary classical, and improvisational practices, exploring points of overlap between these realms. In 2022, Phonetic Orchestra received an APRA Art Music Award for their performance Silent Towns- a 24-hour, telematic live-stream event, with simultaneous performances across Berlin, Naarm, and Walyalup.

Charles has worked as an interdisciplinary collaborator, most notably with visual artist Katie West on several installation works in Australia and aboard. He continues to collaborate with poet, John Kinsella on a series of works about Noongar Ballardong country, where both he and Kinsella reside.

CONTACT

sibercha (at) gmail (dot) com.

ACKNOLWEDGMENTS

Deepest repect for Noongar Ballardong boodja on which I live and work. Dr Marion Kickett for her Welcomes to Coutry, and to all Ballardong elders, past, present, and future.

Jim Denley, Antoine Bueger, Warren Burt, Ros Bandt, Anthony Pateras, and Peter Ablinger for their inspiration and helping me find my way.