Music of Transparent Means is an ever-evolving experimental performance ensemble/entity based in Adelaide, South Australia.
It has featured as many as 21 players and as few as 1. Participant numbers vary according to the particular event vision of director Alex Carpenter, who has led the group, often with Russell Godwin, through numerous performances in Adelaide and Melbourne.
Music of Transparent Means has been performing on the Adelaide scene since 2002, enjoying a reputation as one of the city’s most experimental and uncompromisingly minimalist performing ensembles. Standing somewhere at the junction between rock, ambient and modern classical sensibilities, Music of Transparent Means has been enthusiastically received in a diverse and unlikely collection of settings, from art galleries to CD store basements, concert halls, theatres and pubs.
Since its inception in 2002, Music of Transparent Means has been single-minded in upholding its belief in the inherent yet often dormant power and profundity of sound, and has consistently aimed to provide a space where this power might be summoned and brought into the tangible realm of experience. To this end, Music of Transparent Means frequently embraces long performance duration, intense repetition and volume, sonic saturation, as well as the use of hypnotic visual imagery.
The instruments played by the ensemble include guitars, synthesizers, cymbals, gongs, saxophones, clarinets, amplified strings, trumpets, trombones, wine glasses, samplers, vocals and delay pedals.
