$20 / $10 tickets (on the door)

For our first event of 2024, Maximum Anything presents “Let the Games Begin!”, an afternoon extravaganza featuring a smorgasbord of performances, game pieces and communal activities, culminating in an epic round of musical trivia (Melbourne jazz themed) and the musical showdown of the decade where Melbourne’s finest improvisers battle it out for supremacy in Shaun Rammers’ “Building Blocks” with live and scathing commentary from quiz-master Emily Bennett.

This is an interactive event featuring a mix of game-related performances as well as traditional games where everyone in attendance is encouraged to join in.

Maximum Anything welcome individuals from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences to come together in a spirit of unity and respect. We strive to create a safe and supportive environment where everyone feels valued, heard, and empowered to be their authentic selves.

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Emily Bennett

Emily Bennett is a vocalist and sound artist led by narratives; those both banal and significant, portraying landscapes that bleed into the fictional and subjective. She has collaborated with visual artists, dancers, theatre makers and journalists to construct works for live music performance that fuse sound design and composition with future directions in real-time improvisation.

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Shaun Rammers "Building Blocks"

Watch a group of musicians battle it out for glory in a heated game of Building Blocks. A concept created by Shaun Rammers, Building Blocks is a game where musicians work as teams to stack blocks on top of each other and create the highest tower. Each block contains musical information, used to create a soundscape of improvised music. The game goes for 1 hour with the winning team having the highest tower! Strategy, drama, blindsiding and double crossing - this is a game of survivor meets music.

Featuring

• Commentary by Emily Bennett

• Gemma Horbury - trumpet

• Niran Dasika - trumpet

• Holly Moore - saxophone

• Andrew Saragossi - saxophone

• Elliot Lamb - trombone

• Shaun Rammers - saxophone

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Improvised Radio Play Sessions (led by Ronny Ferella)

In the 1940’s Radio Plays were the “leading international popular entertainment” and Pierre Shaeffer gave birth to the idea of musical sampling through his Music Concrete experiments.

Maximum Anything is bringing it all back and mixing it up with its Improvised Radio Play Sessions. 3 acts of15 minutes each in the Cross Street Library. Voice actors create an ongoing dialogue and drama from the written word only. Novels-Popular Mechanics-The New Scientist-.. Whatever, as long as it was written down and they are reading it.…. Comes with live musical accompaniment- that of course, will be improvised….

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Event starts at 2:30pm and will be over by 7:30pm

Maximum Anything is an initiative aimed at presenting new and exciting music, art, ideas, anything. Artists are free to be who they want, as is the audience. It also aims to create a place for our community to share, experience and enjoy with each other.

Artwork is "Musicians Fighting" by Pieter Jansz Quast

Lineup

• 2:30pm - Basketball

• 3:45pm - Radio play Act 1

• 4pm - Building Blocks

• 5pm - Radio play Act 2

• 5:15pm - The Mind (all invited!) + musical accompaniment

• 5:45 - Radio Play Act 3

• 6pm - Trivia!

$15 entry for the whole day!

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Maximum Anything in collaboration with Brisbane-based independent label MADE NOW MUSIC present a Mini-Festival at the Merri-Bek Bandroom celebrating another year of creative music and new releases (happy 5th birthday to MNM 🥳 ), with food, drink, community activities and most importantly performances from the Melbourne contingent of the MADE NOW MUSIC family.

The festival features performances from Melbourne based MNM artists who have released music on the label in 2023, as well as friends of the label. As a special treat, MNM founder/director Brodie McAllister will be presenting his latest work for large ensemble “Wattle” with a cross-city lineup featuring artists from Brisbane and Melbourne.  

MADE NOW MUSIC is a Brisbane-based independent music label, concert series and community of artists dedicated to music of quality and heart.  We are committed to putting out art from artists that we believe in.  MNM focusses on releasing music being created now from artists not categorised by genre, but by common ethos - quality, honest music, made now.  

Lineup

• I Hold the Lions Paw

• Wattle (Bris/Melb) - large ensemble work by Brodie McAllister 

• The Rest is Silence

• 蛾 Ga (van der Schyff, Lee, Saragossi, Doo) - Album Launch

• Franklin | Carter 

• Andrew Doo Trio

• Mortlake

• Ash Ballat (solo)

• Pat Jaffe (solo)

• Helen Svoboda (solo)

Maximum Anything a new initiative aimed at presenting new and exciting music. Artists are free to be who they want, as is the audience.

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madenowmusic.com

Made Now music on Bandcamp

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Maximum Anything a new initiative aimed at presenting new and exciting music. Artists are free to be who they want, as is the audience.

This is just the beginning. Or is it? You might remember Lebowskis, you might be thinking “hang on, I go to Cross St a lot!”. These are all true thoughts! But this is the beginning of Maximum Anything. A new once a month curated evening of music (as well as food, drink and other fun activities) at The Merri-bek City Bandroom (AKA Cross St). This venue is and has historically been such a hub for the creative community in Melbourne and we want to help it grow more.

Oliver Ledi Hanane's C.A.G.E Squares Project: '4 Plus 2'

C.A.G.E Squares (Chance-Assisted Generative Exercise) is a method of generating stimulus for musical composition by incorporating a degree of chance within the creative process. It is comprised of several categories of pre-prepared prompts (squares), which participants blindly draw from prior to composing, directly informing the outcomes of the final composition. The ensemble convenes just prior to the performance and each member is allocated a 30-minute timed period to complete a playable piece of music using the this process. The compositions are then immediately performed to a live audience. The pieces are not rehearsed, only a verbal description accompanies the physical score. The concept aims to showcase the musical and compositional sensibilities of the musicians as they navigate new musical terrain and relationships without preparation.

The ‘4 Plus 2’ iteration brings together six improvisers; four voices and two rhythm players. The musicians will collaborate to write a suite of music in the aforementioned manner, that showcases the interconnected relationship between vocal expression and rhythmic instrumental playing within an improvisational setting.

With the talents of:

Greta Williams - Vox
Callum Mintzis - Trom/Piano
Oscar France - Keyboard &Synth
Ali Watts - Bass & Effects