Jazz:Now – Strophe

The sixth Jazz:Now event Strophe heads east, exploring notions of space, identity and community at the stunning Paddington Uniting Church.

Mara Schwerdtfeger is a composer and curator based in Eora / Sydney who utilises viola and laptop to create transformative electro-acoustic works. Her extensive output includes commissions by SIGNAL, Avantwhatever Festival and more, and has won her a number of accolades and residencies in Japan, Iceland and around Australia.

In this unique SIMA show, she collaborates with poet Shannon May Powell, whose work has been featured at the Emerging Writers Festival, Berlin Feminist Film Festival, New York Art Book Fair, Centre for Contemporary Photography, The Wheeler Centre and the National Portrait Gallery among others. This rare cross-media collaboration will explore the relationship between music and the spoken word; expect to be transformed.

Max Alduca is one of Australia’s most in-demand and beloved bass players. His rich tone, sympathetic ear and chameleonic musical abilities have led to extensive touring domestically and internationally as a member of ensembles such as Eishan Ensemble, Antipodes, Microfiche and more. In 2025 he formally stepped into the long-awaited role of band leader by releasing his debut album Monastery (produced by longstanding SIMA stalwart Lloyd Swanton) on Earshift Records.

This performance sees his quintet – which features some of Sydney’s most exciting jazz musicians – celebrating this record; a record which meditates on sound and space, influenced by the lauded ECM label and Alduca’s long periods spent in Scandinavia. Here is an ensemble that exemplifies the sound of Australian jazz, just as The Necks did before them – an ensemble which has an ability to articulate a force of quiet momentum, where subtle pulses and lush melodies bear the listener to beautiful unknown places.

Says Artistic Director Novak Manojlovic, “While the Australian improvised music community are keenly aware of Max Alduca’s deep sound and his prowess as a supporting bass player, his new record Monastery proves that he is equally adept as a bandleader and composer. His sense of melody, form and space are sophisticated and unique, and dealt with so sympathetically by his astounding supporting ensemble.

“This show and the preceding set by Mara Schwerdtfeger – an artist who is so deeply embedded in Sydney’s landscape of creative music – in collaboration with Shannon May Powell will be a deeply emotive and transportive affair, made all the more transcendent by the vast acoustics of the Paddington Uniting Church. Do not miss this”.