Overground

Returning for a second year, Overground – the "festival within a festival" — may well become a regular feature of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Once again, the event sold out before the doors opened, demonstrating that there is a strong following for music that sits at the outer edges of jazz and improvisation.

The six-hour event took over the Melbourne Town Hall, with musicians playing on multiple stages, and roaming performance artists in the foyers and stairwells. The emphasis was on in-the-moment creativity.

Japanese duo Satoko Fujii (on piano) and Yoshida Tatsuya (drums) offered a dazzling set that fused bursts of percussive energy with ritualistic chanted vocals. Jerome Noetinger's solo set was another highlight, the French music-concrete artist using a vintage reel-to-reel machine to construct a rhythmic soundscape with loops and analog effects.

Many acts were one-off collaborations between local and visiting international artists. Charlemagne Palestine's tonal explorations on the Town Hall's Grand Organ were augmented by Oren Ambarchi's processed electric guitar, producing a series of layered, humming vibrations that were both hypnotic and ear-bleedingly loud.

Extremes of volume and sonic density featured in so many performances that the afternoon did become something of an endurance test, with instruments used as weapons and amplification used for shock rather than musical effect. Still, it was heartening to see so many drawn to such adventurous fare, an affirmation that the city's creative music roots are in fertile ground.

Jessica Nicholas @'The Age'

I was so pissed off that I didn't have the money for this...