Angel, devil, noise: Inside Adelaide Festival’s most adventurous music program
Curated by Thorsten Hertog and shaped on the ground by Lewis Godwin, Tryp stretches Adelaide Festival’s sound palette with global experiments, local talent and a willingness to surprise.
If Adelaide Festival has built its reputation on refinement and scale, Tryp – under the curatorial direction of Thorsten Hertog – is here to mess with that idea: deliberately, joyfully and very loudly. Supporting that vision on the ground is Lewis Godwin, a programmer whose resume runs less red carpet and more concrete floor, sweat and subwoofers vibrating in places you probably weren’t meant to be.
Godwin – who was recently appointed Adelaide Festival contemporary music project manager – comes from community, independent and underground arts: the kind that happen in non-traditional venues, fuelled by collectives, word of mouth and a healthy disregard for convention.
“My background is as a musician and artist, but I’ve been working freelancing and as a programmer and curator booking shows in Adelaide and in Australia for 15 years, predominantly working with underground, emerging, experimental, transgressive artists,” he says.
That has included everything from live extreme music to underground electronic clubs and illegal raves, with culture – not commerce – always at the centre.
It’s a background that makes his presence inside a major institution like Adelaide Festival both unexpected and, frankly, exciting. Godwin is open about the learning curve.
“I am very open that my background is from an independent sphere, so I am always trying to learn to work in a more traditional framework,” he says. “I’ve been a little bit of a round peg in a square hole, so to speak. But the team there has just been amazing. I have found it an incredibly positive experience.”
Tryp – short for triptych – is the result of that collision between underground sensibility and festival-scale ambition. Originally conceived as three interconnected events, it now presents as a deliberately contrasting two-night experience. “Friday is dark, brooding, heavy, loud, intense,” Godwin says.
“Friday is the devil on your shoulder, whereas Saturday is the angel on the shoulder. Think sunset, think wines outside. It’s quite a different, ethereal experience.”
That duality is the point. Adelaide Festival’s contemporary music offering is programmed as a journey rather than a checklist of recognisable names. “There’s a lot of names that people won’t recognise – and that’s kind of the point,” Godwin says. “Come and experience the whole festival and you will experience world-class acts, world-class artists you haven’t heard of before.”
This is a conscious challenge to audiences – and a statement about where Adelaide sits globally. “Adelaide is, at times, left outside of the cultural dialogue,” Godwin says. “It’s a smaller city. It’s not on the East Coast. Part of the agenda with Tryp creatively is to bridge that a little bit.”
The program pairs international artists with South Australian acts, placing them on the same pedestal and making a clear argument that local doesn’t mean lesser.
It’s also a rare opportunity for Adelaide artists working in sound art, sonic experimentation and active listening – practices with global followings but smaller audiences at home. Performing with Adelaide Festival support at venues like Hindley Street Music Hall is, as Godwin puts it, “a real opportunity”. “It’s very, very exciting, and I think very bold.”
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The boldest swing comes on Friday night with Dronevil, a world-exclusive collaboration between Japanese heavy doom rock band Boris and noise pioneer Merzbow. “Merzbow has been performing since the early ’80s and is one of the most high-profile noise artists,” Godwin says. “He does huge textural avalanches of sound. That’s an exclusive collaboration — it’s the only time they’re coming together.”
It’s the kind of booking that signals intent: this isn’t background music and it’s not trying to be comfortable.
The Friday line-up also includes Takkak Takkak, a new collaboration from prolific Berlin-based Japanese producer Shigeru Ishihara (DJ Scotch Egg) and Vilnius-based Indonesian composer and instrument builder Mo’ong Santoso Pribadi (Raja Kirik); along with DJ Haram from the US and Adelaide percussionist Harry Freeman.
Saturday pivots hard in the opposite direction with Lyra Pramuk, an artist Godwin describes as “completely ethereal, magnetic, powerful”. Set against the backdrop of Adelaide Uni as the sun goes down, it’s designed to be immersive rather than overwhelming – an indulgent, active listening experience that lingers.
Saturday’s bill also features US vocalist, producer and multidisciplinary artist james K; British-born, Berlin-based experimental dance musician Sam Barker; US DJ and turntablist DJ/rupture; and a collaboration between Iranian-born, Adelaide-based santur player Maryam Rahmani and composer and pianist Sebastian Collen.
DJ and club organiser D-grade along with Wilson Tanner are the Australian artists completing the impressive line-up.
The hope is that Tryp isn’t a one-off but a foundation that grows, mutates and continues to push Adelaide audiences into unfamiliar territory.
Godwin is clear that the program asks something of its audience – curiosity, openness and a willingness to not immediately understand what’s happening in front of them. “It is asking quite a lot of audiences,” he says. “But that’s exciting. Without taking those creative risks, you don’t find yourself in those unexpected places.
“We really want audiences to hold our hand with this experience and come and try something they may never have had put in front of them before.”
That’s the promise of Tryp: not recognition, but revelation. “We want people to come with an open mind and be surprised by what they walk away from,” Godwin says. “Audiences are going to walk away seeing something they’ve never heard of before and say, ‘Wow. I didn’t expect to see that in Adelaide’.”
For a city that sometimes underestimates itself, that might be the most radical idea of all.
Tryp runs from February 27-28. Book tix here.
Eight hours, no skips – get set for an unforgettable theatre experience
For a generation raised on bite-sized content and endless scrolling, committing to an eight-hour theatre experience might sound unhinged. But Gatz – the cult, long-form theatrical adaptation of The Great Gatsby – has built its reputation on doing the exact opposite of what modern attention economics demands, and audiences keep showing up anyway.
If you’re worried you need to dust off your high school copy of Fitzgerald before stepping inside the theatre, relax. “It is definitely not necessary to read the book beforehand,” director John Collins says. “Since we will perform the entire book for the audience, it’s almost a kind of live-action audiobook. We don’t leave out a single word.”
That fidelity is the point. When the company first began working on Gatz more than 20 years ago, they tried cutting it down – and immediately realised they couldn’t. “Any cut – even cutting a ‘he said’ or a ‘she said’ – did some kind of violence to the novel’s delicately lyrical construction,” Collins says. “It seemed to us a perfectly formed crystal and we felt that it really only worked in its entirety.”
What unfolds instead is a marathon experience that prizes immersion over efficiency. Spread across four acts, with generous breaks (including a proper dinner interval), Gatz creates a rhythm closer to a shared journey than a night out. “By unfolding over eight hours in real time, the piece creates an unusual relationship with the audience,” Collins explains, one built on trust and patience rather than spectacle.
A shorter version might give you the plot but Gatz is chasing something deeper. “A condensed adaptation may offer the story of the novel, more or less, but it could not offer the author’s writing,” Collins says. “That is what we bring to this theatrical experience – the art of the author’s words.”
That clarity becomes oddly comforting. “There’s a kind of contract that’s very clear from the beginning: you are there to hear the entire novel, no more no less. It’s a long form piece that is exactly as long as it had to be to do the thing it set out to do.
“That is, in some ways I think, reassuring to an audience – they know they are in the author’s hands and not just enduring an experiment in durational performance. It is an experiment in durational performance on some level, but our task is clear: this one, short novel beginning to end. Knowing that and understanding that pact we have with them helps an audience relax into the trip they’re taking.”
Along the way, something else happens: strangers become companions. “We’ve found, too, that the experience creates a kind of bond among the audience that is unlike any kind of experience we’ve created with other shows,” Collins says. “You really get to know your seat-mates through the multiple intermissions and the dinner break.”
Two decades on, the pull hasn’t faded. “Gatz resonates because it is a deeply personal story,” Collins says. “The backdrop of the 1920s is itself a kind of red herring.
“It’s not a tale of the jazz age. It’s not a costume drama. It is the story of people learning who they are and where they came from and learning it through confusion and tragedy. It feels very real and true in a timelessly personal way.”
Gatz runs from Match 13-15. Book tix here.
What’s on
Mama Does Derby
February 27 to March 8
Heartfelt, fierce and funny as, and fresh from sell-out shows at Sydney Festival, Windmill Production Company brings us this mother-daughter theatre tale, penned by Virginia Gay, that smashes up against the rough and radical world of roller derby. In addition to the incredible cast, real roller derby players and a live band join forces onstage for theatre that just hits different.
A Concise Compendium of Wonder
February 18 to March 15
In the beautiful Botanic Garden, step inside Slingsby’s Wandering Hall of Possibility to discover a trio of imaginative worlds, each containing a timely and timeless tale inspired by classic fairytales. Experience each story individually or immerse yourself in an epic journey through the complete collection, all bound in one evolving wooden building that continually reveals new surprises.
POV
March 4-8
Each night, two new unrehearsed actors play the parents in POV, while 11-year-old Bub directs the action and holds the camera, negotiating disarming questions about parenting, agency, mental health and how we speak to children. Can these two adults really answer the tough questions of a child?
History of Violence
February 27 to March 2
At 4am in the Place de la République in Paris, while returning home from a Christmas dinner, Édouard meets Reda, a charming and seductive stranger in the street. They get talking, start to flirt and soon Édouard is taking him back to his apartment. Through the fractured recall of Édouard, his sister, the police and doctors, History of Violence reconstructs this desire-filled-encounter-turned-violent, and explores race, queerness and rage unbridled.
Whitefella Yella Tree
March 12-15
Under a lemon tree in the early 19th century, two teenage boys – Ty of the River Mob and Neddy of the Mountain Mob – meet, sparking a fragile friendship that blossoms into a heady romance. As the English loom and the land is poised to be declared “Australia”, their love unfolds against a backdrop of seismic change. A Griffin Theatre Company production, Whitefella Yella Tree features Pertame and Tiwi actor Joseph Althouse alongside Barrd, Yamatji, Noongar, Bunuba and Ngadju actor Danny Howard.
Coda
February 27 to March 15
Meet us at CODA before or after a show. More than a place to unwind, CODA is a place where glasses are raised, ideas are exchanged and artists and arts lovers mingle. Delicious food and drinks and nightly DJs will be on offer in our bespoke designed outdoor space overlooking Elder Park. It’s the scene within the scene and the perfect pre-show and nightcap for your Festival experience.
