panos

Impulse Response

“Impulse Response” was a 4-hour immersive installation where ceramics, sound, and video converged in a live, elemental dialogue. Master ceramicist Neville Assad-Salha commanded the wheel, shaping large clay forms that grounded the performance, while sound artists Mx Robert Frost and Panos Couros (Atunement) and video artist Liam Somerville (CAPITAL WASTE) amplified the experience. Contact and condenser microphones captured resonances from clay and airborne sounds, crafting an improvised soundscape that responded to the live clay-making process. Video projections intensified these impulses, merging sound, vision, and material into a powerful sensory experience. Audiences roamed freely, enjoyed the bar, and supported Beirut crisis relief through donations. The event was also live-streamed at 7:30 pm Adelaide time (ACDT) on Thursday, 5th December, 2024.

Photos: Liam Somerville

Pentatonic

exhibitions, installations

Pentatonic (2024)  Nerikomi mid-fire porcelain, custom electronics, music

Pentatonic is a fusion of form and sound: five porcelain platters crafted in the Nerikomi style from stained clay, each serving both as a functional piece and a sound instrument. Resonating with the A minor pentatonic scale, these platters become speakers, activated by transducers powered by a custom microprocessor. This convergence of clay and sound creates a multi-sensory experience, allowing viewers to experience sound as a tactile presence and form as melody.

The universal pentatonic scale—essential in blues, jazz, Ancient Greek, and meditative music—provides the foundation, resonating through layered Nerikomi patterns that embody harmony and unity. Created using slab production, staining, and Nerikomi techniques, each platter showcases contrasting textures and subtle, curved forms, emphasised by a translucent matte glaze. Colours are chosen to harmonise with the ritual of serving food, adding a minimalistic, sensory dimension.

Pentatonic bridges my work as a sound designer with my passion for ceramics, merging auditory and tactile art.

Music by Atunement (Panos Couros and Mx Robert Frost)

Atunement is an experimental project blending modern electronics with musique concrète, drone, ambient, and noise. Driven by improvisation, Panos Couros and Mx Robert Frost unite their distinct approaches to create soundscapes that elevate consciousness, exploring the intersection of acoustic and electronic sound.

* All sound in video below emanates from the ceramic platters

The Age of Bones – Jaman Belulang

sound design

by Sandra Thibodeaux

The Age of Bones is a biting and magical satire set deep beneath the sea!

The Age of Bones traces the story of Ikan, an Indonesian boy who goes fishing one day and fails to return. Fearing the worst, his family hires a famed seafarer to track him down – he finds nothing. Combining Indonesian puppetry, music and digital projection, The Age of Bones follows Ikan’s fantastical story from Indonesia to his eventual imprisonment ‘down under,’ and his fight to get home to his family.

A heartfelt and darkly funny tale inspired by the real-life stories of 110 Indonesian boys allegedly imprisoned in Australian adult prisons for working on refugee boats.

A Satu Bulan, Teater Satu and Performing Lines Co-Production
Writer/Co-Producer: Sandra Thibodeaux
Co-Directors: Iswadi Pratama & Alex Galeazzi
Translator: Kadek Krishna Adidharma
Set Designer: Dann Barber
Original Design: Iswadi Pratama
Costume Designers: Imas Sobariah & Dann Barber
AV Design: Mic Gruchy
Composer/Musical Director: Panos Couros
Lighting Designer: Philip Lethlean
Puppeteers: I Made Gunanta & I Wayan Sira
Production Manager: Rhys Robinson
Stage Manager: Gina Bianco
Lighting Associate: Siobhain Geaney
Producer: Pippa Bailey (Performing Lines)
Performers: Deri Efwanto, Mohammad Gandi Maulana, Imam Setia Hagi, Budi Laksana, Imas Sobariah, Kadek Hobman & Ella Watson-Russell

22 Feb – 5 Mar | AsiaTOPA – La Mama Courthouse, VIC
8 – 11 March | Ainslie & Gorman Arts Centres, Canberra, ACT
15 – 18 March | Australian Theare for Young People, Wharf 1, Sydney, NSW
22 – 25 March, Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, NSW
30 Mar – 9 Apr | Browns Mart Arts, Darwin, NT

panX · Jaman Belulang - The Age of Bones

Photos: Tristan Hooft and various anonymous

The Daly River Girl

sound design

by Tessa Rose

Presented by and produced at Brown’s Mart, Darwin 8 – 26 November 2017
Remounted at Adelaide Fringe Feb-Mar 2022

Director: Alex Galeazzi
Sound Designer: Panos Couros
Cast: Tessa Rose.

‘The Daly River Girl depicts writer Tessa Rose’s personal story, starting from growing up with various non-indigenous [sic] foster families in Perth, Western Australia, an eternity away from her natural mother, family, and Country of Daly River, Northern Territory.

‘Her story speaks from the heart and openly expresses her pain, anger and joy. We follow her journey from adolescence into womanhood, her first love, the cruelty of domestic violence, her resilience to overcome the many obstacles on her own.’

panX · The Daly River Girl

Photos; Glen Campbell

Singing the Lonely Heart

sound design, Uncategorized

by Alana Valentine

Directed by Alex Galeazzi
Cast: Abigail Austin, Jane Phegan, Elaine Hudson, Rebekah Moore, Jason Montgomery, Peter Flett

In this Southern gothic fantasia, writer Alana Valentine uses the life of famed American novelist Carson McCullers, author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Member of the Wedding, friend of Tennessee Williams and dinner companion of Marilyn Monroe, to weave a tale of individuality battling the constraints and prejudices of small town conservatism.

Loosely biographical, the play follows Carson’s journey through Southern freak shows, New York drag bars and Parisian cemeteries, as she explores her identity, creativity and sexuality. SINGING THE LONELY HEART is a humorous and poignant study of sacrifice and triumph, told in a compelling magic realist production style.(Poster Photography by Waded, Production Photograph Bob Seary).

“This is theatre as good as it gets; ready for any major stage, here or overseas. … Moving, compassionate, tough, taut and terrific!” Brad Syke, Sydney Stage Online

“Transports us with something theatrical and magical … one of the most artistically polished and consistent productions I’ve seen at the New” Martin Portus, Sydney Star Observer

20 July to 5 August 2006