Luminescence Chamber Singers’ Luminescence and the Machine might be the most extreme project the Canberra-based vocal ensemble has tackled yet. Artistic Director and mezzo-soprano AJ America admits she is approaching it with a “hefty dose of terror and apprehension” but is thrilled to finally share it with audiences.

Luminescence Chamber Singers. Photo © WILK

“You never know when you start this kind of thing exactly what you’re biting off,” she tells Limelight. “It’s going to be demanding, but what’s the fun in doing anything other than that?”

Premiering at this year’s Canberra International Music Festival, Luminescence and the Machine is a program of brand-new electroacoustic works from a number of Australian and international composers, brought to life by a bespoke electronic system.

It’s the fruit of a “lot of different threads that slowly coalesced,” says America. The first of those follows on from Luminescence’s last project, Of the Body, a collection of works concerned with physical embodiment, based around a new song cycle composed by the group’s tenor, Dan Walker.

Dan Walker at a workshop for Luminescence...