David Chesworth

After hours, the room hosts one-off sessions, talks, and listening parties from RISING artists who you wouldn’t usually get to see up close. The lineup has been curated by Yasmine Sharaf host of Cease + Desist on Triple R and Robin Fox, co-founder and artistic director of MESS.

David Chesworth is a key figure in Australia’s experimental arts scene, working across music, performance, and installation. As co-founder of Essendon Airport, he helped define a distinctive minimalist, post-punk sound, while early solo recordings such as 50 Synthesizer Greats established an unpolished, concept-driven approach to electronic music, marked by irony, humour, and experimentation.

His practice spans experimental operas, ensemble works, and large-scale public sound installations, united by an interest in how sound operates within cultural and social contexts. Albums including The Unattended Serge reflect an ongoing engagement with the expressive potential of electronic systems.

Alongside this, he has led the David Chesworth Ensemble, with performances across Europe, the UK, and the USA. He also played a formative role in Melbourne’s artist-run culture as coordinator of the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre in the early 1980s, a key hub for experimental and interdisciplinary practice.

In his presentation, David will discuss his seminal work 50 Synthesizer Greats, and the various influences and factors that shaped his ground-breaking album.