My research explores extra-normal vocal techniques, particularly influenced by Tuvan, Mongolian and Inuit sound cultures and how vocal free improvisation might intersect with (chaos magick) ritual work and Buddhist insight meditation.
As a researcher I have interests in feminist, queer and trans politics, intersectionality and ethical engagements with postmodern culture(s), with a focus on writing against normative narratives. A critical engagement with the ethics of performance, cultural appropriation and privilege form the core of my praxis.
Education
2019 PhD (Music) West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Thesis title: Giving voice to the extra-normal self with the extra-normal voice: Improvised exploration through the realms of shamanic chaos magick, insight meditation and gender performance.
2009 MLitt (Modernities) Glasgow University. Thesis title: Blood and guts: Misreading and plagiarism in Kathy Acker.
2005 BA Hons. (Linguistics and English & Cultural Studies) University of Western Australia. Thesis title: Fragments, partiality and irony: Writing away from the monologic of heteronormativity towards “a powerful infidel heteroglossia” (Haraway) of relationships.
1998 BA (Fine Art) Curtin University, Perth Australia
Awards
2017 WAM Awards—nominated for ‘Best Experimental Act’
2015 Australian Postgraduate Award (WAAPA)
2009 William Lauchlan Mann Prize (Glasgow)
Publications
2019 Harlow, S. J. ‘silences [score]’. Sound Scripts, 6(1).
2019 Harlow, S. J. ‘Exploring the extra-normal self with the extra-normal voice: Improvised ritual possession with voice’, Context 44 (Winter 2019), 25-35.
2019 Harlow, S. J. ‘Non-striated sound spacetime: An ironic political myth’, Soundest Zine 4 (August 2019).
2019 Harlow, S.J. ‘Giving voice to the extra-normal self with the extra-normal voice: Improvised exploration through the realms of shamanic chaos magick, insight meditation and gender performance’, (PhD dissertation, Edith Cowan University).
Conference Papers
2018 ‘Integrating the selves / Cutting through the self: Possession and meditation practices utilising extra-normal vocal technique, trans theory and anarchisms’. Quite Frankly: It’s a Monster Conference, University of Western Australia, Perth
2018 ‘Silencing silences and silencing silliness: Political and spiritual intersectionality in two contemplative compositions—Silence backstage and John 4:33’. Gender Diversity & Music Making Conference, Monash Univeristy, Melbourne
2018 ‘Yøu Can’t Kill Us: Disrupting normative perceptions of transgender women and Transfeminine People’s Voices’. Co-authored with Shoshana Rosenberg. Gender Diversity & Music Making Conference, Monash Univeristy, Melbourne
2018 ‘Exploring the extra-normal self with the extra-normal voice: Improvised ritual possession with voice’. Melbourne University Postgraduate Musicology Conference, Melbourne
2017 ‘Invocations of Unknown Entities (Artists Talk)’. Totally Huge New Music Conference, Perth
2017 ‘The illusion of free will and its implication for improvising (and invocation)’. Agency in Jazz and Improvisation, Melbourne
2009 ‘Concepts of Tuvan sound culture and the early music of Sainkho
Namtchylak’. Sound Thought Conference, Glasgow
2007 ‘Secrets, slips, and singular events: A model of critical reflexivity in research’. Co-authored with Kristina Weaver. Royal Geographical Society / Institute of British Geographers Conference
Residencies
2018 Yurt Artists Residence (week-long artist residency) Brunswick, Melbourne
2017 Residence Series (four-night performance-residency) Wembley Downs, Perth
Recordings
SOLO RELEASES
Sage Pbbbt (2020). Three Journeys, Tone List (Aus) Zine & digital.
Sage Pbbbt (2017). invocations of unknown entities, Tone List (Aus) CD & digital.
Sage Pbbbt (2017). Residence #2: four nights of invocation (the Residence Workings), Residence (Aus) digital.
SOLO ELECTRONIC
digital penetration (2021). strata, Tone List (Aus) digital video album.
digital penetration (2020). Three Journeys, self-released (Aus) digital.
digital penetration (2020). washingb irdma chine, self-released (Aus) digital.
digital penetration (2020). demos ongssi xteen, self-released (Aus) digital.
digital penetration (2019). threem ove ments (collage), self-released (Aus) digital.
digital penetration (2018). watching Shinkan Tamaki’s ‘time space motion’, self-released (Aus) digital.
digital penetration (2018). fridges & sticks, self-released (Aus) digital.
digital penetration (2018). breaking breaking waves, self-released (Aus) digital.
digital penetration (2005). EP:60, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2005). stuff; left over bits (demos ongsfi fteen), self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2005). demos ongsfour teen, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2005). demos ongsth irteen, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). demos ongst welve, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). demos ongsele ven, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). demos ongst en, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). demos ongsni ne, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). demos ongseig th, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). when i was 7: demos ongse ven, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). demos ongsi x, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2004). demos ongsfi ve: the anti guitar album, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2003). demos ongsfo ur, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2003). demos ongsth ree, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2002). demos ongst wo, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2002). demos ongso ne, self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
digital penetration (2001). The PreCrack Daze (demos ongsze ro), self-released (Aus) CDR & digital.
SOLO VOICE (DAILY SKETCHES)
Daily sketches project started 2013-08-07 at: SageMusick.bandcamp.com
COLLABORATIONS
Pneumasphere (2021). The singing moons of Qhushlicentroviix, संस्कार Rites (Spain) digital.
Echo On Echo (2020). within walking distance, self-released (Aus) digital.
Echo On Echo (2020). broadleaf dwell, self-released (Aus) digital.
Echo On Echo (2020). still falls drifting, self-released (Aus) digital.
The Ripening (2020). The Very Verge of Remembrance / They Must Sleep, Or They Will Devour Us, self-released (Aus) digital.
Pneumasphere (2019). xenophonography; region 5284:61:34, self-released (Aus) digital.
Pneumasphere (2019). ‘Hits Of The 3090s’ retrieved from original 237 bit audio recording; discovered in the abandoned interstellar craft ‘The Pummel’, self-released (Aus) digital.
Pneumasphere (2019). intercepted transmission, source unknown, quadrant 576-02, self-released (Aus) digital.
Pneumasphere (2019). xenophonography; region 4516:12:34, self-released (Aus) digital.
Pneumasphere (2019). folk songs from imaginary cultures, self-released (Aus) digital.
Little Songs of the Mutilated (2018). They were lifelessly melding in a pool painted with little songs of the Mutilated., Little Songs of the Mutilated (Aus) digital.
Sage Pbbbt & Erin K Taylor (2018). MPavilion, Frustration Jazz (Aus) CDR & digital.
Dan O’Connor & Sage Pbbbt (2018). Lines to, Tone List (Aus) CD & digital.
Temporary Autonomous Zion (2018). Making Kin, Tone List (Aus) cassette & digital.
Temporary Autonomous Zion (2018). Live at the Make It Up Club (03.07.18), self-released (Aus) digital.
Sound of the Mountain (2018). Residence #4: Sound of the Mountain, Residence (Aus) digital.
Temporary Autonomous Zion (2017). Live at Spectrum Project Space (26.12.17), self-released (Aus) digital.
Ashes of Burnt Sage (2017). live at the 459 bar, perth, western australia 2017-09-11, self-released (Aus) digital.
James Bradbury (2017). Biomimicry, Tone List (Aus) CD & digital.
COMPILATIONS & APPEARANCES
Various (2018). EX/IN (responses to Dan O’Connor’s IN/EX), Tone List (Aus) digital.
Various (2018). Fair Play 2, Fair Play (France) digital.
Eduardo Cossio (2017). Foliages, Dog Park Records (Aus) digital.
Various (2017). Minutiae, Dog Park Records (Aus) digital.
OLDER COLLABORATIONS
Hummingwards (2010). Monkeys, Garden (Scotland), CDR and digital.
kandt (2007). the metaphysics of grammar, Drifter’s Landing (USA), CDR & digital.
kandt (2007). happy birthday jon scolnik, Drifer’s Landing (USA), CDR & digital.
Morrissey’s Love Children (2005). No Way! Get Fucked! Fuck Off!, wav ing socks about music (Aus), CDR & digital.
Morrissey’s Love Children (2004). Be Gone, wav ing socks about music (Aus), CDR & digital.
Morrissey’s Love Children (2004). Be Than, wav ing socks about music (Aus), CDR & digital.
Morrissey’s Love Children (2004). Sound Asleep, wav ing socks about music (Aus), CDR & digital.
Morrissey’s Love Children (2004). Good Sense of Housekeeping, wav ing socks about music (Aus), CDR & digital.
Select Live Performances
2019 February 26-March 3 soloist in Cat Hope’s noise opera Speechless; Perth International Arts Festival
event page – review (ArtsReview) – review (The Conversation) – review (SeeSaw mag)
2019 January 25
with Monika Brooks (piano) at the NOWnow, Sydney
event page
2019 January 19
solo voice set at Tilde New Music Festival, Melbourne
event page
2019 January 19
with Katherine Philp (cello) and Carl Rosman (clarinets) playing pieces by Naima Fine Fine at Tilde New Music Festival, Melbourne
event page
2018 October 21
with Breaking Waves at Inland Festival, Perth
event page
2018 October 18
solo voice/possession set at the opening of the exhibitions ‘It is a long time since this moment’ (curated by Moana) and ‘This mess we’re in’ (curated by Tarsh Bates) as part of the Quite Frankly: It’s a Monster Conference
Old Customs House, Fremantle
conference website
2018 March 26
voice with Aviva Endean (bass clarinet), Dale Gorfinkel (percussion) and Shoshana Rosenberg (bass clarinet) as part of Aviva & Shoshana development showing of ‘A Well-Set Table’
Mechanics Institute, 270 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
2018 February 13
with Senyawa (ID) and Rama Parwata
Make It Up Club, Bar Open, Melbourne
2018 January 30
voice with Sean Baxter (drums) Phil Bywater (saxophones) Robin Fox (electronics) and Romy Seven (electronics)
Make It Up Club 20th Anniversary Festival
event page
2017 November 3
voice and drums with Eduardo Cossio (guitar) at the WAM Experimental Showcase
Paper Mountain, Northbridge
event page
2017 August 20
voices and possession duo with Andrew Harper at Overground Festival within the SuperSense Festival, Melbourne
event page
2017 August 11
invocation / sound poetry set at ‘Sounding Off’, Perth International Poetry Festival
event page
2017 July 28 & 29
principal vocalist in work-in-progress showing of Cat Hope’s noise opera Speechless
Vitalstatistix, Port Adelaide
event page – review – Cat’s project blog
2017 October 27
lead voice in Anne LeBaron’s ‘Concerto for Active Frogs’ and improvisation with Anne LeBaron and Perth improvisors, Perth
event page
2017 January 19
with Guylaine Cosseron (voice) [France] as part of the Audible Edge festival, Perth
festival event page
2016 August 5
recital of excerpts from ‘01sonate’ by Calum Roger at ZOUNDS! as part of the Perth Poetry Festival 2016
event page
2016 January 10
solo voice at ‘Club Zho 124’, 459 Bar, Perth
event page
2015 May 23
voice with Perth iMprov Collective and Alice Hui-Sheng Chang performing her piece ‘Gentle Steps’ as part of the Totally Huge New Music Festival, Perth
event page – review in RealTime Arts
