Flowerpots, floor tiles, scrap metal, water … nothing is safe from the curious hands of a contemporary percussionist.

The ‘one-two’ rhythmic cells of a stapler and flour sifter might be a first, though.

A still from Rebecca Lloyd-Jones’ 2022 performance of Thought Sectors. Photo supplied

Sarah Hennies’ Thought Sectors angles for a modern mode of listening. Unfurling queer and trans identity, it’s an intellectual work that plays with psychoacoustics – the ways in which humans perceive and process sound. Synergy’s program notes says it’s a piece that “rewards persistence”, and it certainly does. Meditative and totally introspective, there’s no virtuosic showboating or catchy hooks to rely on. But if you open your ears completely, it’s daring in its own right.

Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, the newly-appointed Artistic Director of Synergy Percussion, takes the stage and begins on the bass drum. Rhythms begin to be taken for granted through repetition but when Lloyd-Jones stops them, the sudden absence is as jarring as if she’d hit the drum full-force. It’s accompanied by the oddly-satisfying clang of an upside-down...