How many of these great music releases are in your collection? Some of them are very rare!
Get Off the Couch (2004)
Our first released track was “Their Eyes Met Across the Partition” which found itself onto a compilation put together by the Melbourne Fringe Festival. When we turned up at the launch we were surprised to encounter, as well as some nice free canapés, a speech from the Health Minister talking about the dangers of marijuana. The album was actually a compilation of tracks with an anti-drugs message and somehow we’d made the final selection in some kind of competition. Our track had nothing to do with drugs and was really meant as a vignette about a romanticised office worker existence. Nevertheless the canapés were nice, the Health Minister seemed well-intentioned and Spoonbill deservedly won with an excellent track called “Gum Tree” (which likewise appeared to have nothing to do with drugs).
Electundra 2004 (2004)
Electundra was an annual festival of electronic and experimental music which ran at Loop Bar from 2004 onwards. As well as being a fantastic weekend of live experimental and electronic music, there was also an accompanying sampler CD with excellent tracks by participating artists. This one included our track “Their Eyes Met Across the Partition” (so far the only track we’d recorded). Also includes tracks by our buddies Winduptoys (with me doing guest synth playing) and Edward Kelly.
Electundra 2005 (2005)
The Electundra Festival expanded in 2005 so the sampler expanded to a double CD. This one included our track “Waiting in the Foyer”.
Electundra 2006 (2006)
Another excellent festival at Loop for Electundra 2006. As well as a sampler double CD this year there was an accompanying sampler DVD, so we quickly whipped up a video clip for our track “Lunchtime Meditation Session” to include it on both formats.
Sampled Synthesis 6: Back to Yours (2007)
Sampled Synthesis was a series of sampler CDs which were duplicated in limited numbers between 2000 and 2007 to promote the Melbourne artists who were part of the Clan Analogue collective. They were mostly sent out to media and venues, with a limited number sold at gigs. Sampled Synthesis 6 included our track “Waiting in the Foyer”. As you can see we tended to release our tracks in a few places – we hadn’t recorded very many of them yet.
New Weird Australia, Broadcast One (2009)
New Weird Australia kindly invited us onto their FBI Radio show for an interview and live-to-air performance when we were in Sydney on our 2009 tour. We played our track “Lunchtime Meditation Session” and they wanted to include it on their next compilation album. We weren’t happy with the version we performed on radio so quickly recorded a new take when back in Melbourne. You can hear the original interview and live version here or check out the version on New Weird Australia, Broadcast One.
Elevator 17 (2012)
Elevator 17 is an Android app coded by Matt Adair featuring a live set from Random Acts of Elevator Music recorded in a CBD office building lift in 2006 (the Manchester Unity Building, 226 Collins St, I think) along with covert footage from our impromptu appearances in lifts in Sydney and Melbourne that year. This was intended as an experiment in new ways of releasing music. Go to the Google Play store and get it onto your phone!
Analogue Redux (2016)
Analogue Redux: Hardware Explorations was a compilation released by Clan Analogue to celebrate the resurgence of hardware in electronic music creation. Each artist’s contribution had to predominantly feature analogue and/or classic hardware. We contributed the Random Acts of Elevator Music track “Up and Down” which features the use of the Casio CZ101 and Gakken SX150 synthesizers. Read a review on PBS-FM.
Random Acts of Elevator Music (2017)
Finally in 2017 we released our debut self-titled album. These tracks were all recorded between 2003 and 2009, however we never quite got organised at the time to finish this off and release it. Better late than never! This was part of a batch of releases that Clan Analogue put out in 2017 to celebrate 25 years of their existence as a collective and label. Read some reviews on Cyclic Defrost
and Australian Musician.
Wound Without a Tear (2020)
Wound Without a Tear was released by Melbourne label Daisart in 2020. It compiles together some excellent and generally overlooked Australian artists from the era 1992-2008, including Clan Analogue label mates Kazumichi Grime, Pretty Boy Crossover and Kaputnik and the legendary Ros Bandt, along with many other great artists. We were honoured to have our track “Waiting in the Foyer” included. Available as download, streaming or double vinyl edition with amazing artwork and interesting booklet.
Check out the extensive information about this project on the official Random Acts of Elevator Music website and the links below.
Random Acts of Elevator Music
Random Acts of Elevator Music performances
Random Acts of Elevator Music media
Random Acts of Elevator Music videos
Random Acts of Elevator Music – original concept
Nick E Wilson 