A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Animation of drawings and shapes

NTS Radio X Powerhouse

Sounding the Collection

Powerhouse Renewal

Artist Xin Liu floating with arm outstretched against a black background. She wears a full-length grey body suit with long sleeves with bare feet and hands.

Sydney Science Festival

Across Sydney10—17 Aug
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

Slider thumb2023
Stories

NTS Radio X Powerhouse

Sounding the Collection
Mix by Andras (Andrew Wilson)
Animation of drawings and shapes
Diving into the collection of over 500,000 objects, I’ve pulled together samples, live performances, radio plays, soundtracks and degraded tape renditions of popular music.
Andras

Andras is a resident host on NTS Radio, a global online radio platform. For his broadcast on 1 February 2023, he created a mix that dived into the Powerhouse collection, arranging samples from the Sounding the Collection project, live performances, radio plays, soundtracks, and degraded tape renditions of popular music.

16 black, translucent and white cassette tapes laid out in a grid.
Object No. 2004/115/1-7
Tape recordings of historic flutes and interviews with Linda Vogt and other Australian flautists.

Andras (Andrew Wilson) is an Australian musician working the gap between dance and ambient music. Using a wide variety of aliases (including Wilson Tanner, Berko, Art Wilson) his releases are increasingly concerned with breaking and reassembling an Australian vernacular sound and identity.

Track list

Powerhouse – Promotional recording, 1998

Corin and Rainbow Chan – Live performance excerpt (Hohner Clavinet D6, Rhodes Piano Bass, And Roland SH-101 from the Powerhouse collection)

Black and white image of two people, both seated at keyboards, seen from behind.

Lachy Doley – Live performance excerpt (Hammond B3 from the Powerhouse collection)

Felicity Mangan – 100 Climate Conversations sound design

Asa Tone – ‘River At Work’

Midori Takada – Revealing Resonance excerpt with samples from Sounding the Collection including ‘toys’ and ‘automata

Unknown – Excerpt from Mr Malik’s ‘Tape Of Persian Tar Music

Plastic audio cassette tape in a plastic case with a blue and white cardboard insert. Text on the insert reads ‘C-90, low noise, high energy, "Pyrtrad", "Supplied by the N.S.W Government Stores Dept."’.
Object No. H9492-5
Recording of Persian Tar music on audiocassette tape

Holden – V8 motor cold start after years in a paddock

Sounding the CollectionMatchbox police car and other samples

Luke Pitt – Excerpt from ‘Bus Dis IV’ mix, recorded for SLATS, 1988

Eric B. & Rakim – ‘Paid In Full’ (Seven Minutes Of Madness - The Coldcut Remix)

The Kane Gang – ‘Don't Look Any Further’ (Mantronik Mix)

Mo Aung – Excerpt from Powerhouse Late: Sounding the Collection live performance

Lucy Cliché – Excerpt from Powerhouse Late: Sounding the Collection live performance

Royal Command – Excerpt from Sweatbox Dance Party at The Hordern Pavilion, 1989

A poster with an orange frame, white text on a black background stating ‘Sweatbox Royal Command’. In the centre of the poster is an illustration of the Queen.
Object No. 2009/62/1-1/10
Poster for the Royal Command dance party

Blessed – Score from ‘151ºE’ (Latitudes)

Alexandra Spence – ‘Stellar Nullius’ (Oscillations Episode 2)

Skylab – ‘Next’

Midori Takada – Excerpt from Revealing Resonance

Schubert – Beale & Company Ltd Player Piano

Linda Vogt and Catherine Fluke – Excerpt from demonstration of John Amadio flutes from the Powerhouse collection.

The Mojos – ‘Seven Daffodils’

George McKelvey – ‘My Radiation Baby (My Teenage Fallout Queen)’

Dionne Warwick – ‘Walk On By’

Los Machucambos – ‘Granada’ (for Scopitone Jukebox Films)

Paul de Maranis – ‘Trentesima Lezione’

Sounding the Collection – ‘Photograph’ and other samples

Photo album with heavy leather cover, and cream cardboard pages printed in gold with polychrome floral borders.
Object No. H5397
Photo album with built in music box.

Andras

Andras (Andrew Wilson) is an Australian musician working the gap between dance and ambient music. Using a wide variety of aliases (including Wilson Tanner, Berko, Art Wilson), his releases are increasingly concerned with breaking and reassembling an Australian vernacular sound and identity. Born in suburban Melbourne in 1988 to Hungarian-Australian parents, much of his output digs around in his own backyard – a garden replete with native and introduced species, flowers, compost and worms of melody underfoot.

In addition to his production work, Wilson has hosted radio shows, composed soundtracks for contemporary dance, and compiled reissues of Australian music for the cult label Efficient Space. Wilson’s tongue-twisting label imprint Punp was conceived as a way to self-release his music. Wilson has toured extensively worldwide as a DJ and performer.

A gloved hand holding a opened jack in a box positioned under two microphones.

SOUNDING THE COLLECTION

From an automaton bird cage, and an art deco clock to toy robots, tuning forks and steam engines, Sounding the Collection is a sonic archive from Powerhouse that brings objects sitting silent in the collection to audition.

The archive hosts over 100 recordings designed to be shared publicly inviting artistic interpretation and collaboration into the sonic archive. These recordings allow musicians, researchers, and sound designers globally to repurpose and interpret them via a ‘sample pack’ – potentially finding their way into sonic identities, movie soundtracks, foley, pop songs, and sound installations.