Dan West & Eugenia Lim

Dan West (Live electronics/audio)
Eugenia Lim (Live projections/video)


Instrumentalist and electronic artist Dan West facilitates OUTPOST – a monthly a/v jam session for laptop artists. He also produces and performs with Barney McAll’s Sylent Running ensemble. For the Jazz Fringe, Dan will utilize a laptop, MPC sampler and various analog devices processed live to create a real time audio/video performance with long time collaborator, video artist Eugenia Lim.

tweakandtwang.org
shareoutpost.org

Dan West is an instrumentalist, composer and educator working extensively in the improvised and electronic music community of Melbourne. Since graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1995, he has been dedicated to playing original music with a wide variety of artists fusing organic and processed sound.

In 1999, Dan was included as part of the Emerging Artists Initiative Grant awarded to Adrian Jackson from the Australia Council for the Arts. In March 2000, Dan received a Development Grant from the Australia Council to study composition and improvisation techniques in New York City with contemporary guitarist and composer Wayne Krantz.

In September 2005, Dan spent time in New York City with the Share collective exploring experimental laptop based music in performance. A founding member of the Outpost Collective, Dan and fellow Outpost members curate an open monthly audio visual jam on the last Wednesday of every month at DJ Wasabi’s TETRIS in Brunswick. OUTPOST is a mixture of open jam, featured performances and spontaneous workshop and runs much like other SHARE events over the world.

In the electronic realm, Dan collaborates with other local sound and video artists in the folktronica group Welcome Dear Friend. Processing acoustic sounds the ensemble strives to create unique sonic environments for the song form. He has composed for on-line music games and created sound design for creative workspaces and video artworks.

Dans improvising ensemble Kadoonka has performed at many festivals over the past eight years including Wangaratta Jazz Festival, The Half Bent Winter Music Festival, Planet Cafe ‘Make It Up Club’ and Bennett’s Lane. Kadoonka was awarded an Arts Victoria grant to record their 2003 Newmarket release ‘By The Scruff’. He has worked with The Natives, True Live, The Red Eyes, Tim Dargaville’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, The Maximalist Orchestra and Entropy.

In 2009, Dan worked over the internet with New York based Australian pianist Barney McAll on the project Sylent Running. This ensemble features three New York based artists and three based in Melbourne. McAll and West wrote and produced the album Empathy Chip with artists from both timezones. Sylent Runninng met physically late November 2009 and executed a successful east coast Australian tour culminating in two sold out shows in the back room of Bennett’s Lane, Melbourne. Sylent Running begins work on their second album mid 2010.

As an educator, Dan has held long running positions teaching private instrumental music and directing student ensembles in a variety of government and private secondary schools. He currently works as Youth and Education Music Coordinator at the Arts Centre, Melbourne teaching co-ordinating youth music projects with a focus on . He also teaches VET Music Industry – Technical Production at Sydney Road Community School.