Penelope Trappes
with Bluetung
27 March 2024
Phoenix is proud to host ethereal soundscaper Penelope Trappes for her second-ever performance in Sydney, having presented her debut homecoming at Phoenix Central Park. An Australian-born, Brighton-based vocalist and producer signed to esteemed East London label Houndstooth, Trappes melds powerful ambient drones and poignant post-classical melodies with reverb-drenched vocal incantations. Her sonic craft has the gravitas of a ghostly industrial chamber and will powerfully transfigure the 20th century monolith of White Bay Power Station. This evening will be opened by the entrancing guitar and glitchy electronics of Mitchell J.G. Reynolds, aka Bluetung.
Penelope Trappes
Penelope Trappes is a UK-based Australian experimental vocalist and musician creating intimate and sacred soundscapes that focus on minimalism, spaciousness and shadows. Penelope’s fourth album, Heavenly Spheres, released in April 2023 on her own Nite Hive imprint, was composed using just piano, voice and an old reel-to-reel tape deck during a two-week residency for Britten Pears Arts at the house where the composer, teacher and musicologist Imogen Holst lived in Aldeburgh, Suffolk UK.
The release of Penelope Three in 2021 marked the final instalment of Trappes’ acclaimed trilogy. Composed of mostly percussionless, reverb-heavy, haunting atmospherics with dystopian themes, Penelope One was released via Optimo Music in 2017. She then signed to Houndstooth and released her second album Penelope Two in 2018, a minimalist and surreal album built around field recordings, meditations, guitars, piano and reverb, which dealt with mortality, predestination and empathy. 2019 saw the release of Penelope Redeux consisting of reworks from Penelope Two by uncompromising artists including Cosey Fanni Tutti, Mogwai, Félicia Atkinson and Nik Colk Void. Penelope Three, the final epigenetic-themed instalment of the trilogy, was released in May 2021 with the tour culminating in a live performance with the London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s Southbank Centre.
Bluetung
Bluetung is the project of Mitchell J.G. Reynolds: a musician and electronics technician originally from regional NSW, now based in Narrm/Melbourne, Australia.
Refined over multiple full-length releases in recent years, Bluetung's sonic world-building is steeped in electronic music history with whispers of kosmische, tape music, post-punk and minimalist composition echoing into a formless ambient space of his own devising.
Bluetung has been releasing textural electroacoustic works since 2018 on beloved cult labels Altered States Tapes, .jpeg Artefacts and Club Moss, with his newest album Eternity by the Stars released by Eora label Theory Therapy in 2023. He has collaborated with and performed alongside artists such as Mara Schwerdtfeger, Other Joe, Nico Niquo, Del Lumanta, Florian TM Zeisig, and Justin Cantrell.
This performance is part of the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns.
This performance will take place at the NSW State Heritage-listed White Bay Power Station, as part of the 24th Biennale of Sydney.
Placemaking NSW has undertaken extensive remediation and conservation works to repurpose White Bay Power Station as an arts, cultural and community hub. It will become a focal point for the transformation of the Bays West precinct into a connected and vibrant new area for living, working and recreation.
White Bay Power Station was constructed between 1912 and 1917 to power the rail network and is now over 100 years old. It is exceptionally significant as the only power station retaining machinery and equipment from before the 1950s, demonstrating the process of electricity production and its use throughout Sydney’s extensive rail network.
Performances
PerformancesWednesday 20 March 2024, 7:00pm
LocationWhite Bay Power Station
28 Robert St, Rozelle
TicketsFree, by ballot only
Ballot closed
Ballot draw date: Wednesday 20 March 2024
Ticketing FAQs
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All Wednesday night performances at White Bay Power Station during the 24th Biennale of Sydney are free.
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Due to high demand for these performances, tickets will be issued at random to those who have entered each ticket ballot. Each performance has a separate ballot, so if you would like to attend multiple performances, you will need to enter each ballot separately.
We advise you to listen to the artist you are entering the ballot for, and consider which shows you’d really like to attend. Entering more ballots does not increase your chances of attending.
Please only enter our ballots with your own details - if we catch you using false details, you won’t have any luck. We reserve the right to cancel any tickets we believe are obtained through false information at any time.
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If you are successful you will receive an email up to ten days prior to the performance with instructions on how to claim your tickets.
This offer is only valid for a limited time. Unclaimed tickets may be forfeited. You will have the option of confirming up to two tickets for a performance.
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No, your tickets will be valid for a specific performance only. If you are unable to attend, please pass the ticket onto a friend or contact us at tickets@phoenixcentralpark.com.au to allow someone else the opportunity to attend.
You can enter ticket ballots for your chance to attend another performance.