Driftwood

Nick Ashwood | guitar, organ, objects
Aviva Endean | woodwinds, organ, objects

Driftwood is the new duo project of Nick Ashwood and Aviva Endean, two artists whose longstanding connection through Australia’s experimental music communities has here given rise to a singular and immersive sound world.

Performing face to face and performing on re-tuned antique pump organs, the duo uses this sonic foundation as a resonant backdrop for their primary instruments of woodwinds and guitars. Their slowly evolving music inhabits a landscape of shimmering microtones and shifting harmonic colour, with the non-equal tempered organs creating a unique audible sensation that is felt more than heard.

The result is a listening experience that feels quietly transformative — hypnotic, immersive and deeply embodied. Driftwood invites audiences not simply to hear, but to dwell within a harmonic expanse that feels ancient and imagined, like folk music from a world just beyond reach.

Both Ashwood and Endean are significant voices on the Australian new music scene, between them their accolades include the Freedman Fellowship, the APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award for ‘Excellence in Experimental Practice’ and more. Their debut self-titled collaboration was released to acclaim on Room40 records — a beacon of Australian new music.