Queen Victoria Gardens

An audio-visual journey unfurls by the pavilion pond, where analogue synths meet found sounds

Ai Yamamoto and Dan West are a Naarm/Melbourne-based sound artist duo whose practice weaves together melodic experimentation and environmental response. Their performances blend analogue synthesizers with real-time processing of field recordings, piano, strings, and guitar, creating landscapes that shift between beautiful melodies, glitchy rhythms and ambient textures.

Each performance is uniquely shaped by its setting, with the duo’s empathetic musical dialogue responding to the space they inhabit. For Dusk til Dark, they’re crafting a site-specific experience that merges their collected sounds, video projections with the natural environment of the pavilion.

Set times:

• DJ from 7:30 PM
• Ai & Dan live performance from 8:30 PM

Grab a drink from the kiosk and enjoy an ambient opener as the sun sets, then join Ai & Dan for an unrepeatable audio-visual performance after dark.

Collaborators: 

Ai Yamamoto is a sound designer and music producer based in Melbourne. Her music practice comes with sonic exploration and melodies. Ai sources various sounds from field recordings to games and manipulates textures into a body of work influenced by soundscapes, ambient, and industrial music. She is also a visual artist and creates her videos alongside her music. Ai has worked with a range of sound artists, video artists and contemporary dance performers such as Lawrence English, Dan West, Yumi Umiumare, Sofi Basseghi, Jeanette Hoe, Tammy Hulbert, Ben Frost, Antuong Nguyen, and others.

Dan West is a musician, sound designer and community collaborator based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. He has created soundtracks for video and performance artist Eugenia Lim, music and sound design for Butch performer Yumi Umiumare, dancer Leisa Prowd, Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Hate Race (Malthouse Theatre) and Topdog/Underdog (Melbourne Theatre Company). He currently plays live electronics and guitar with Ai Yamamoto and indie pop chanteuse Georgia Fields while concurrently writing and touring with renowned instrumental Hammond Organ trio, Cookin’ On 3 Burners. Dan has performed extensively across Australia, Europe and Asia at festivals including Falls Festival, Singapore International Arts Festival and Tokyo Jazz Festival and his music for installation and dance has been shown at venues including TATE Modern (UK); Noh Theatre (Japan); Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and MONA.