Reverb: This Is a Journey Into Sound Just Got Extended – Here Are Five Works To See at ACMI

Melbourne’s Rising brings some much-needed heat to our city’s chilly winter. Each year, the festival transforms the city with a sprawling program of art, music and performance, offering Victorians a welcome antidote to the seasonal slump. One of this year’s highlights was Reverb: This is a journey into sound – an exhibition from London’s The Vinyl Factory to ACMI that explores the relationship between music, social movements, art and film. And while Rising is sadly over, Reverb will extend its stay until October 4.

As curator Bethan Johnson explains, Reverb is all about exploring music as a shared global phenomenon, with its pieces originating from the UK, Nigeria, Detroit and Egypt.

“The energy, soundtracks and performances on screen are intoxicating. We watch musicians jam in the studio, remix in clubs and dance in the streets,” Johnson says. “The works on display trace connections between underground scenes, social movements and technologies, showing how music shapes culture and identity.”

And while the shared, global importance of music is clearly at the heart of the exhibition, Johnson says that Reverb’s extended run owes much to Melbourne’s passionate love of music.

“Melbourne has a deep culture of sound; informed by iconic and beloved radio stations, record stores, venues and underground scenes,” she says. “I think one of the reasons that it’s really resonating is the opportunity to explore creative collaborations between artists and musicians. You’ve got streetwear designers to fashion photographers, choreographers to poets – all working at the intersection of music, art and film.”

Naturally, music lovers of all stripes will find something special in Reverb, but so will anyone looking for a chance to slow down and spend some time really absorbing the longform film and music on offer – like that of the exhibition’s Listening Room, an intimate, acoustically treated space to sink into sound.

With that in mind, Johnson has shared her favourite works from Reverb that you’ll want to experience before it closes for good on August 31.

Carsten Nicolai – Bausatz Noto

Reverb isn’t passive – it allows you to listen to music in new ways, as Carsten Nicolai’s colourful interactive vinyl installation demonstrates.

“Carsten Nicolai has spent the last 30 years creating audio archives of electronic sounds,” Johnson says. “In his interactive installation Bausatz Noto, the archive is available on 12 coloured vinyl records. Four turntables invite visitors to select a record, put on headphones and create a new track by combining sound loops in ever-changing variations. It’s really fun and completely hypnotic.”

Stan Douglas – ISDN

What would it be like to stand in the middle of an intercontinental freestyle? That’s the scenario with Stan Douglas’s work ISDN, an immersive installation that places visitors between large-scale projections of two rap exchanges. In London, grime artists Lady Sanity and TrueMendous trade bars; in Cairo, mahraganat musicians Raptor and Joker answer back with politically charged verses.

“The exchange feels live, but the performances were recorded weeks apart and the film runs for an incredible 1523 days, 17 hours and 52 minutes. Douglas samples and remixes the footage to create the illusion of real time.” 

Jeremy Deller – Everybody in the Place

This isn’t an exhibition to rush – especially when there are longform documentaries like Jeremy Deller’s hour-long Everybody in the Place, which digs through the fascinating origins of British rave culture.

“The film traces how music from Detroit’s post-industrial scene travelled through British Caribbean sound systems culture and then morphed into acid house,” Johnson says. “It connects 80’s rave culture with political unrest. You discover unexpected histories of how sounds move between cities, scenes and communities – and how they are ultimately transformed by the people who encounter it along the way.”

Virgil Abloh – 12 Inch Voices

From the mind of the late architect, DJ and designer Virgil Abloh comes 12 Inch Voices – an interactive sculpture Johnson describes as “kind of bonkers”.

“It’s a giant boombox made from spiky pink acoustic foam. It reimagines the sound system as sculpture,” says Johnson. “You can see how Abloh's reference points collide – from training as an architect, to DJing in the clubs of Chicago, to becoming an influential streetwear designer.”

Jenn Nkiru – Black to Techno

Jenn Nkiru has made a mainstream name directing music videos for Beyoncé (including snagging a Grammy for the Brown Skin Girl clip), but Black to Techno is a film more interested in the under-the-radar, working-class origins of Detroit’s techno scene.

“In Black Techno, Jenn remixes radio clips, interviews, home videos, and archival footageto retell and reclaim the story of techno,” says Johnson. “Tracing links between manufacturing, migration, Nkiru shows that techno wasn’t an escape from factory life. It transformed it. One of my favourite scenes shows three women in boiler suits and safety goggles DJing on the factory floor.”

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of Reverb: This is a journey into sound, presented by Rising and ACMI.