This month’s Itinerant Mind is titled "No Safe Place”. It’s based on one durational improvisation for Supercollider and guitar performed by Ian McArthur on Mixlr in late 2019. Here though the piece is expanded with extensive additional processing, samples, and the field recordings of media artist and designer Mija Healey captured in December 2019 at mad.lab 5 the transcultural interdisciplinary urban research platform based in Chongqing.

The work references the ubiquitous bushfire crisis faced in Australia due to the ever worsening effects of climate change. It is as much as a reflection on the personal and material crisis faced by individuals impacted by the fires. The field recordings draw in a chaotic urban soundscape in the latter half of the piece creating a disorientating juxtaposition intensifying a sense of situations beyond control. Simultaneously functioning as a metaphor for the breakdown of family, it’s unapologetically a difficult listen.

Annie Morrad and Ian McArthur live at opposite ends of the planet. They compose and play collaborative sound work and live performances through the use of digital software Mixlr and Skype. For live events McArthur broadcasts electronic sounds, field recordings and live mixing. Morrad plays live improvised alto and tenor saxophone against these. For their recorded sound work the starting points vary from being concept driven to "I've got this idea…."