With the spirit of an experimenter and a heart for play, the music box project is all about forging connections between artists and audience.

“Our shows have historically been a meeting place,” says the music box project’s Jane Aubourg. “Collaborations and projects have started with a connection made at a music box project show. We absolutely love this, and wanted to expand on it for this festival. Our aim is really to create a meeting place for everyone involved, to share a space for listening and play, to create new connections and strengthen old ones.”’

The Music Box Project: Jane Aubourg, Peter Leung, Naomi Johnson, Joseph Lisk and Elizabeth Jigalin. Photo © Yvonne Chen

Cut Paste Play is the latest from the music box project, a weekend-long program over 23–24 March at Sydney’s Church Street Studios centred on the collective’s core values: “play, collaboration, community and exploration”.  It retains and expands on the “inviting, low-stakes” energy created by the ensemble’s regular pub gigs, Upstairs @ The Glebe, explains Aubourg.

With a lineup that co-curator...