Born in the Illawarra, Dharawal Country south of Sydney in 1957, Jim has been active with experimental and improvised musicking since the 1970s. The audio from his recent PhD research can be accessed here. Bloomsbury will be publishing his PhD research as the book, Towards ecological musicking: As Weather Improvisation.
His photo of spiderwebs after rain is from the Budawang Mountains. The audio, Monolith Ravine he recorded in the Monolith Valley, Budawangs, Yuin Nation. He’s made work there or about the Budawangs for over 20 years
You can listen to his 2007 recordings from the Budawangs, Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley.
He is interested in what his music instinct might learn from language. From 1989 to 2009 he worked with the text/music group Machine for Making Sense, (Amanda Stewart, Stevie Wishart, Rik Rue and Chris Mann).
Jim co-formed 180º with Amanda Stewart and Nick Ashwood in 2018 to continue the pursuit of text/music intra-activity.
He often records around the coves and beaches of Sydney Harbour, where for thousands of years the Dharug people would have played ngaramang (music). The selfie and audio above were captured at Rushcutters Bay in late 2019.
He’s been involved with the radically inclusive Splinter Orchestra since 2001. Above is a video made of their trip to the Pilliga, NSW in 2018.
Contact: jim@splitrec.com
Jim Denley and the eternally orchestrating sonoverse 