Sonic Adventurers.
So...today we headed out to The Piano Mill on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, just across the border in New South Wales. We have visited before two years ago. Last year the event was cancelled due to Covid and this year it was touch and go after a new outbreak of the virus in Brisbane but in the end the event went ahead.
We very nearly didn't go in the end because the weather today was threatening to be wet and miserable and our last visit had been slightly ruined by a moist and misty day but at the last minute we threw caution to the wind and set off.
The property is owned by the Architect Bruce Wolfe and his wife Jocelyn and the Piano Mill itself, a wooden tower that houses 16 old pianos, won a World Architecture Award in 2018.
Once again it was moist and misty but apart from one shower we were able to wander umbrella free.
It was a sell out ticketed event and the guests, divided into groups, rotated around seven venues about the site to encounter and witness short musical performances. Most were outdoors amongst the woodland but for a couple we were masked and seated indoors.
It's all very 'avant garde' and mostly improvised and I am afraid I wander about trying not to smirk in bewildered amusement. I half wonder if the joke is actually on those who pay to observe and some of the performers attempt to see how ridiculous they can be before their serious faced audience.
Ah well, I am still glad we decided to venture out for the afternoon, though once again we left during the actual final Piano Mill performance to beat the rush of cars out of the gate. We are sadly not the kind of people who can listen to 16 out of tune pianos 'plink plonk' for 45 minutes while some elderly Eurythmist dressed in bright blue and with bellows on the soles of her shoes flops about waving her arms wildly.
It's definitely out of the ordinary and a bemusing experience.
But, before we leave it...behold this...