
Rising Water
2022
Made about water, from water. Its terror, its patience, its ubiquity and scarcity. Released on Flaming Pines, London.
Cover art by Cristopher Ahern & Timothy Fairless
Following the release of Rising Water I performed the album twice at KEPK in Meanjin. The first show (pictured) was in-the-round and supported by Flora Wong and Lou Janssen. Sound was set from 4 channels in the corners of the room, and new album-themed animations were projected across the space so both audience and performer had the same experience. The second show was a visual treat, with the projectors split by a screen and a curved wall. The second show was with Mekema, Unregistered Master Builder, and Madeleine Cocolas.
Photograph by Thomas Oliver
Rising Water is my second full-length album, and I'm very privileged for it to be released by the expansive London label FLaming Pines. The album is a meditation on the beauty and menace of water. It received radio play on the BBC (UK), 4ZZZ (Meanjin/Brisbane), and FBi (Eora/Sydney), and exceptionally favourable reviews from Chris Cobcroft at 4ZZZ and Peter Hollo from Utility Fog.
Artwork by Christopher Ahern & Timothy Fairless
I held my first solo video exhibition in the area I grew up, at a watch-house that was decommissioned in the year I was born. It's both the heat & the humidity activated 2 cells and the vestibule at The Old Lockup. The works investigated the intersection of queer identity and natural+social environments of my formative years, and were made from fragments of sound and image from that time and place. The soundtrack is available here.
Photograph by Timothy Fairless
An original-condition, architect-designed, Japanese-inspired mansion built in the 1970's plays host to artists and performers. Each artist gets a room to perform live in - but I got two. I performed The Howling, Control I and Control II for the series Sessions at the Shangri-la, which is out now.
Photograph by Ally d'Alchemy
In January I was privileged to travel and perform with Henri van Noordenburg at the opening of his exhibition in Miles, Westen Queensland. Henri and I captured sounds from the local environment, and performed with those while he made new work. It was an extension on a practice we've been developing for a while, in which I take an audible feed from Henri's mark-making and transform it. This sound becomes my performance, which in turn influences how Henri's visual art piece is composed. Across a lifetime of music making, this ranks as one of the best experiences I've had.
Photograph by Mark du Potiers
Made about water, from water. Its terror, its patience, its ubiquity and scarcity. Released on Flaming Pines, London.
Cover art by Cristopher Ahern & Timothy Fairless
Soundtrack to the exhibition. Queer identity & environment explored through treated field recordings, archival video and cassette recordings.
Cover art by Timothy Fairless
An album about diversion and distraction. Shedding reliance on familiar instrumentation, Common Electric Glare champions abstraction of tone & texture.
Cover art by Timothy Fairless
5-song companion EP to Common Electric Glare re-imagines and reveals. Minimalism, sonic abstractions, and expansions on themes and ideas explored in the album.
Cover art by Timothy Fairless
Experiments in deep sampling of acoustic instruments, and adventurous manipulation of archival audio meets electric guitar and polyrhythms.
Cover art by Daniel Mayfield-Smith
A composition for grand piano and violin maintaining the acoustic aesthetics of both instruments. Slight imperfections retained on the master convey honesty and authenticity.
Cover art by Mark du Potiers
This final release in a triptych completes a 12 song cycle that includes Measurement (2012), and Plural (2015). Although abrupt and jarring in parts, it illuminates the space around the sound.
Cover art by Christopher Ahern
A Thin Black Line is the soundtrack album for the virtual reality experience of the same name. The score accompanies a charcoal depiction of the true story of a young girl and her family fleeing Darwin before the 1942 bombing.
Cover art by Vernon Ah Kee
Bias is made of piano and processing. Performed elements were recorded without any 'traditional' playing of the instrument. Instead, the piano was stripped of non-structural outer panels and struck, plucked, and otherwise activated with a range of archaic implements.
Cover art by Mark du Potiers
Flying birds are processed to become the haunting introduction to Fault Lines. Waves recorded just north of Byron Bay become the rattling, noise-laden foundation of Holograms (Y). Grand piano and violin are nestled amongst unrecognisable sonic mush harvested from Notre Dame on the heart-wrenchingly gorgeous Pollen.
Cover art by Christopher Ahern
This debut EP of 4 songs is where you should start. Crushed leaves are stretched to become the entire ambient wash on piano-based Lumen. The knock of a finger against a microphone is transformed into the cacophonous middle passage in Decibel. Electric piano and slide guitar sit amongst a cinematic soundscape made from unrecognisable household objects on Deep North.
Cover art by Christopher Ahern
Solo exhibition at The Old Lock Up about queer identity & environment. The show had 2 video/audio works and a sculptural work, was extended by a SoundCloud playlist, performance & artist talk.
Experimental performance at the group exhibition, What Matters. The work combined processed pre-recorded vintage audio mined from digital reproductions of video and current audio submitted by audience members, responded to on piano and guitar.
Collaborative exhibition with Mark du Potiers, presented as MSTR. Featured 3 new video art pieces presented as immersive audio visual installations and 2 scultpural works, alongside print work and site specific installation by Mark du Potiers.
Audiovisual installation first shown on the elevated warehouse screen at the Wide Open exhibition at KEPK Space in Brisbane.
Multi-channel audio installation as part of the You Can Lead a Horse to Water... exhibition at the Grey Street Gallery in Southbank, Brisbane. Made entirely from a glass of water, the work ran 4 discrete audio channels of differing lengths. Looped, these created an endlessly evolving soundscape.
A generative and responsive sound installation presented at the collaborative exhibition, Don't Drink the Milk with visual artists Emmalyn Hawthorne and Aaron Perkins. Exploring language and communication, Recuse for Mono listened to the gallery space and processed the audio in a multitude of ways before playing the result back into the space.
Soundtrack for Ali Choudhry's video, exploring what 'home' means and where it is. First exhibited at Incinerator Gallery (Naarm/Melbourne) in June 2022.
Theatrical score for William Yang's performance of In Search of Home, commissioned by QAGOMA (Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art) as part of the major survey show William Yang: Seeing and Being Seen.
Soundtrack accompaniment to William Yang's short video Rod & Dave's Summer Party. Presented as part of the major survey show William Yang: Seeing and Being Seen at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2021.
An experimental soundtrack to the short film Silencer. The rhythm of a bouncing ball anchors the score, which features heavily processed noise and aggressive, evolving textures.
Score for the virtual reality experience directed by Douglas Watkin. The work was commissioned by SBS/NITV, produced by VRTOV & Doublewire and premiered at the 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Art. The score is made from bowed acoustic guitar, kalimba, felt piano and violin.
Score for the Fiona Wirrer-George episode of NITV's Our Stories TV program. Directed by Douglas Watkin and broadcast on NITV in 2016.
Commercial for BMW, with an electronic score made from sounds recorded from their cars and transformed into tuned and playable instruments.
Soundtrack to the short film about a single father learning how to step back to let his daughter grow up.
Soundtrack to the short film set outside a nightclub. The diegetic score drives the action and emotion while using only sub-120Hz frequencies.
A short film about revenge and freedom. The gritty soundtrack holds the tension with hybrid acoustic/electronic elements, scultped noise, and treated foley recordings.
Soundtrack to the award-winning short film about a killer seeking redemption when he intervenes in a woman burying her freshly-murdered partner.
Timothy Fairless is a composer and music-maker exploring the space where found sound and sonic manipulations intersect with familiar acoustics. As a composer, he engages schema-driven, conceptual methods. Timothy’s work is realised as sound installations, recordings, performances, and music for film.
Fairless' formative years were in regional areas. Growing up queer in the 90’s, difference and concealed identity set the foundation for a frame through which sound is interrogated as multi-layered, masked, and can simultaneously be more than one thing. Through experimental music and sound installation he explores themes of position and privilege, identity and isolation.
Solo work is published on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp and most other streaming services. Installation work has been exhibited at Webb Gallery. Grey Street Gallery, and KEPK in Meanjin/Brisbane. Timothy’s soundtrack and scores have been exhibited in the Adelaide Biennial of Art, at Queensland Art Gallery’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and appeared on broadcasts for SBS/NITV, in addition to independent release. He has performed live in venues across Brisbane, Hong Kong and at the Art Gallery of SA. As a panelist, he's discussed composition for film and virtual reality at the Byron Bay International Film Festival and at the QLD State Library, and talked about creativity and AI at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. As a music producer, co-writer & collaborator he has worked with artists of many genres across Australia, and internationally in Hong Kong and Germany.
Timothy lives in Meanjin (Brisbane).
Year | Description | Medium |
---|---|---|
2023 | William Yang's "Gay Sydney, A Memoir" - Seymour Centre, Sydney | Performance |
TONDI () TONDO Exhibition Closing Party - KEPK | Performance | |
2022 | "Rising Water" - Flaming Pines, London | Album |
"It's both the heat & the humidity" - The Old Lock Up, Maroochydore | Video & Sculpture | |
Yonder Festival - The Lost World | Performance | |
"Fragile States" - New Weird Australia | Compilation | |
"Still Water" with Henri van Noordenburg - Dogwood Crossing, Miles | Performance | |
"Kelp Culture" group exhibition - Project Gallery, South Brisbane and Woodford Folk Festival, Woodfordia | Sound Installation | |
"You're Still Perfect" Not Quite There group exhibition - Project Gallery, South Brisbane | Video | |
"I Am Home" with Ali Choudhry - Incinerator Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne | Soundtrack | |
2021 | "No 4AM Phone Call From Tokyo" - Loei Art Festival, Loei Province Thailand | Video |
"Split View" - Independent Release | EP | |
"Creative AI" - Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane | Panelist | |
"Common Electric Glare" - Independent Release | Album | |
"WWWYAL" - A Country Practice | Remix | |
Drone Festival - KEPK Space, Brisbane | Longform Ambient Performance | |
Henri van Noordenburg's "Still Water" - Side Gallery, Red Hill | Longform Ambient Performance | |
"CAT Scan" - What Matters Exhibition, KEPK Space, Brisbane | Audiovisual Performance | |
William Yang's "In Search of Home" - Queensland Gallery of Modern Art | Theatrical Score | |
William Yang's "Rod & Dave's Summer Party" - Seeing & Being Seen Exhibition, Queensland Art Gallery | Soundtrack | |
"Revirginate" with Mark du Potiers, as MSTR - Webb Gallery South Brisbane | Video & Sculpture | |
2020 | "No 4AM Phone Call From Tokyo" - Wide Open Exhibition, KEPK Space Brisbane | Video |
"Platypus Corridor - Slow Motion Electrolocation" - Andrew Tuttle | Remix | |
"Headwind" - Independent Release | EP | |
"Waves at South Golden Beach" - Field Recordings Podcast | Field Recording | |
2019 | "Pollen (Killawarra)" - Independent release | EP |
"Sum" - Independent release | EP | |
"Rising Water" - You Can Lead a Horse to Water Exhibition, Grey Street Gallery South Brisbane | Sound Installation | |
"Silencer" - Cosmonaut Creative Media | Film Score | |
William Yang's "Gay Sydney: A Memoir" - RMIT Melbourne Victoria | Theatrical Score | |
"Made Today: Sound Composition for Film & Game" - State Library of Queensland | Panelist | |
2018 | Dead Air Festival - Backbone, East Brisbane | Performance |
"Co-Lab Create VR Symposium" - Byron Bay Film Festival, Byron Bay New South Wales | Panelist | |
"Recuse for Mono" - Don't Drink the Milk Exhibition, Webb Gallery, South Brisbane | Sound Installation | |
"A Thin Black Line" - Adelaide Biennial of Art, Art Gallery of South Australia | Performance | |
2017 | "Bias I/II/III" - Independent release | EP |
"A Thin Black Line" - VRTOV and SBS/NITV Australia | VR Score | |
2016 | "Fiona Wirrer George" - Double Wire and SBS/NITV Australia | TV Doco Score |
2015 | "Plural" - Unperceived Records, Berlin, Germany | EP |
"Deploy Your Senses 2015" - Deploy Your Senses Label, Spain | Compilation | |
"Eclosion" - Duskdarter Label, Brisbane | Compilation | |
2014 | "Measurement" - Independent release | EP |
"Continue to Drive - Music from a BMW" - BMW Australia | TV Commercial | |
2013 | "Black Betty" - Creative Carps | Film Score |
2013 | "Bouncer" - Soap & Water Productions | Film Score |
2012 | "The Housewife" - Retroset Films | Film Score |
2011 | "True Love" - QPIX and Ignition Films | Film Score |
"[Robots] Never Die" - Rat vs. Possum | Remix |