Rare Chords

RARE CHORDS is a deep-listening community based in Nipaluna, Lutruwita. Our aim is to connect artists from diverse musical traditions & sound practises in a spirit of collaboration and cross-pollination. Our events take place across a range of contemplative & intimate performance environments, prioritising warm and visually-calm spaces where musicians and audiences can relax, connect, and share energy together. In addition to curating established acts, Rare Chords invites unlikely pairings and spontaneous collaborations between invited musicians, encouraging experimentation, improvisation, and the blurring of genre boundaries, all within a restorative atmosphere of deep listening.

For our first event (Feb 14th, 2026) we presented two acts beneath the towering eucalypts in the tranquil ambience of the courtyard garden at KickStart Arts in New Town:

* Emily Sheppard curated a soundbathing experience filled with marine field recordings and surreal watery soundscapes, overlaid with live violin, eel-skin erhu and vocals.

* Our second act featured a quartet of musicians hailing from a range of musical backgrounds, improvising together for the first time in the reflective wake of Emily’s marine immersion. This quartet featured Andrea Breen (viola), Pablo Cadenas (tuned percussion), Tim Jones (tuba) and Callum Cusick (guitar)

For the second edition of Rare Chords, we were pleased to host Naarm-based duo, Zoltan Fecso & Anna Morley, who presented their exquisite new album, Desire Path. On this record, Zoltan unearths the warmest possible tones from a Prophet synthesizer and melds them with the shimmering colours of Anna Morley’s vibraphone. Together, as the music unfurls in gradual waves, they draw time almost to a standstill, slowing the listener’s pulse and saturating the body in an elemental calm. In other words, “This music does not create a song for our ears… It is a ‘state,’ such as moonlight poured over the fields.” — Leonhard Huizinga.

Support came from local Alex Marsh, whose latest album (Trellis) was released last year with California label Not Not Fun. Trellis weaves acoustic and electronic timbres together in a delicate ecosystem of sound; the album has received airplay across NTS radio, including Sofie Birch's long-running Ambient Abracadabra. For this performance, Alex will be performing with a combination of zither, electronics, piano and clarinet.

Zoltan Fecso & Anna Morley

Alex Marsh (performing with Naomi Baltyn)