Audio Foundation

26/09/2026

Performing at Audio Foundation in Tāmaki Makaurau on 9th October.

20/09/2026

Ducklingmonster LP available at Volcanic Vinyl - check out their regular pop-up store in Devonport every week at Tiny Triumphs, a fabulous collection! -

‘I know….a….way’ is the first solo LP by Ducklingmonster aka Beth Dawson. Created during her 2023 Winter Residency at Tāmaki Makaurau’s Audio Foundation, ‘I know….a….way’ weaves a disembodied playfulness - building its own environments through the materiality of creation. Utilisin...

19/08/2026

🔊 NEW AFRECORDS RELEASE 🔊

Motoko Kikkawa Residency Recordings: Motoko Kikkawa & Various Artists

Motoko Kikkawa () has spent two decades as one of Ōtepoti's most prolific and versatile artists, working fluidly across sound, drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles and performance since arriving in Dunedin from Tokyo in 2004. On violin, vocals and in improvised collaboration, she has built a reputation for deep listening — treating each performance as a live conversation with whoever she is performing with.

In April 2026, her instinct for collaboration became the engine of a new body of recorded work. Over a two-week residency at Auckland's Audio Foundation Kikkawa worked with a shifting group of local musicians and improvisers. The project was made possible by the Asian Artists Fund which enabled Motoko to be mentored by Audio Foundation director and AFR producer Jeff Henderson. Rather than a single record, the residency produced eight distinct volumes - duos, trios, and ensembles - each with its own character, shaped by whoever was in the room.

VOLUME LIST
💿 Volume 1 — with Kraus, Anita Clark & Matthew Gunn
💿 Volume 2 — with Rosie Langabeer & Neil Feather
💿 Volume 3 — with Alice Sparrow & Kristian Larsen
💿 Volume 4 — with the Obfuscators
💿 Volume 5 — with Paul Buckton & Sam Longmore
💿 Volume 6 — with Kristian Larsen & Jeff Henderson
💿 Volume 7 — with Kristian Larsen, Chris O'Connor & Jeff Henderson
💿 Volume 8 —with Ryan Tomov & Jeff Henderson

Each volume is available individually, or as part of a complete box set collecting all eight recordings.

Recorded by Jeff Henderson, Matthew Gunn & Sam Longmore
Mixed & mastered by Jeff Henderson

Releases 21 August
audiofoundation.bandcamp.com

We celebrate the release of this octet of works on Friday 21 August with a concert featuring Motoko performing with The Obfuscators, Anita Clark, Matthew Gunn, Rosie Langabeer, Neil Feather, Alice Sparrow, Kristian Larsen, and Ryan Tomov.

18/08/2026

FR and Skirted Records () are pleased to co-release a new album by vegetable.machine.animal - the moniker of the prolific artist, drummer, collaborator, traveller Kieran Monaghan who is based in Wellington, New Zealand.

v.m.a's 2025 album 'Guest' saw Monaghan and his vegetation/synth/drums setup improvising with 15 different artists over 13 tracks, with diverse instrumentation inclusive of Taonga Puoro (traditional Maori instruments), noise guitars, modular synths, vocals, household objects and more. 'Trio' flips this model and sees Monaghan performing alone with his triple pronged 'band'. Some may argue this is a solo project - Monaghan would beg to differ. The vegetable and the machine cannot be wholly controlled by the animal, and contribute what they will. Given that the sensors on whatever vegetation is at hand pick up the electrical impulses of the alive plant, the animal can only attempt to coax more interactivity by the cute if clumsy gesture of spraying water on said plant, and then it still may not respond...the animal is at the mercy of the inner workings/life of the plant for any material with which to work and create music. The machine interface - a modular synthesizer - responds better to manipulations by the animal, however the taming of electricity into predictable forms is not desired - the opposite is what makes the sound/music alive. Surprise, instability, chance, error, repetition, ruts...it all makes for a wonderful sound world for the animal to spontaneously interact with, thus this is very much a Trio. Whilst scientific tests on the effect of music upon plants remain inconclusive, whether or not the vegetable and machine are 'listening' or responding to the animal is irrelevant - the animal is at the mercy of the vegetable, the machine talks to both, we the listeners simply listen.
- AFR

released August 14, 2026

vegetable.machine.animal [vma]:
plant/fungi/lichen [biosignals] modular synth [electronic sounds]
kieran monaghan [drums, percussion, recording]

Digital and CDR available now via

15 track album

12/08/2026

EVAMARIA MÜLLER & THOMAS CATLAW:
COMPOST X
August 2026

Compost X is a collaborative sound work built across two years and two continents, Arizona's Sonoran Desert and Vienna, by sound artists Thomas Catlaw and Evamaria Müller. Beginning as an exchange of field recordings passed back and forth by email, the project evolved into a practice the pair call "composting".

Akin to making a physical compost heap, the artists learned to recover, reuse, and repurpose discarded or forgotten fragments from their sound archives and texts from their unfolding correspondence to create new, unexpected, and vibrant sonic worlds. Each new layer of sound arrived to the other already in relationship with what came before — breaking down, reacting, and remaking the emerging piece into something neither artist anticipated.

The result is four soundscapes (along with a fifth piece, called “+ one,” built from the artists' own correspondence and voices), alongside a long-form essay that both reflects on and enacts composting as an artistic method and an ethical practice of listening- and creating-with others.

➡ Listen to the work on afm.org.nz, and explore the textual manifestation of Müller and Catlaw’s collaboration on Soundbleed.org.nz, AF's online journal for critical writing around sound in Aotearoa.

Thomas Catlaw is a sound artist and field recordist based in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. His practice centers on transforming, layering, and (re)assembling field recordings into soundscapes that traverse the border between documentation and fabrication.
thomascatlaw.combird.says

Evamaria Müller is a sound artist based in Vienna. Her soundscapes continuously explore new compositional approaches to examine the complex composition of (and our relationship to) our environment through field recording and sound experiments.
www.evamariamueller.net

24/07/2026

💿 NEW AFRECORDS RELEASE 💿

'Ecstatic Ballads for Broken Hearts' by Tim O'Dwyer & Love Cry Aotearoa

Initiated by Singapore based saxophonist Tim O'Dwyer, Love Cry is an ongoing performance project in which sentimental Asian ballads—particularly Thai Luk Thung— are reinterpreted through the ecstatic and explosive vocabulary of free jazz, inspired by the work of Albert Ayler. Rather than fusing genres, the project seeks to confront and transfigure them. These songs are approached not with irony but with intensity—treating their sentimentality as a site of power, memory, and transformation. Each performance is a risk: a negotiation between melody and rupture, memory and fire.

The Love Cry project has been performed by different ensembles in Singapore, Australia and Aotearoa - New Zealand. The album presented here was recorded at the Audio Foundation and features visiting artists Tim O'Dwyer and drummer Darren Moore - both Australians resident in Singapore and active throughout Australasia, Europe & South East Asia. Joining them are Tāmaki Makaurau locals Sean Martin-Buss and Tashi Stewart on electric guitars, double bass player Eamon Edmundsen-Wells and saxophonist Jeff Henderson.

Out now via Bandcamp

4 track album

23/07/2026

After 20 years as a trustee, Andrew McMillan has finished his tenure on the Audio Foundation board. His advocacy and dedication have helped shape and sustain this organisation for two decades, we simply wouldn't be where we are without him. Thank you, Andrew, for everything you've given to Audio Foundation and to Aotearoa's experimental arts community. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours, and encourage everyone to check out his new release on Bandcamp!

https://andrewmcmillan.bandcamp.com/album/explorations-with-usawi

Whakawhetai ki a koe, Andrew.

23/07/2026

Spotlighting New Noises from Ōtepoti, Ōtautahi , Te Waiharakeke, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Tāmaki Makaurau, Naarm & Japan at Audio Foundation and Whammy Bar.

02/07/2026

📄 New critical writing now on the Soundbleed Online Journal:
‘Modes of Worlding in Electronic Music: How a Deeper Engagement with Process can Help Loosen the Grip of Capitalist Realism’ by Lucy Reid.

Lucy Reid () is a writer, researcher and sound artist, currently based in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara. They are interested in the politics of audibility and exploring sound as a site of power and possibility. Lucy is also one half of live electronic duo and founding member of q***r music collective .

➡ Read the full piece here:

MODES OF WORLDING IN ELECTRONIC MUSIC: HOW A DEEPER ENGAGEMENT WITH PROCESS CAN HELP LOOSEN THE GRIP OF CAPITALIST REALISM By Lucy Reid “It...

26/06/2026

NYC composer / sound designer / body musician performs at Audio Foundation in July.