sanctuary × mill
A note from Jesse…
‘sanctuary x mill’ (sanctuary by mill) is a series of improvisatory exchanges between myself, Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold at the Murray Bridge Piano Sanctuary on Ngarrindjeri Country in South Australia, and The Piano Mill at Harrigans Lane on Western Bundjalung Country, on the New South Wales and Queensland border.
Each of these sites is a ruined piano sanctuary. By the 1890s, there were as many as 700,000 pianos on the Australian continent, serving as the fixtures of social and domestic life in colonial communities. 130 years on, many of these instruments are now entering their twilight days, transformed by decades of weathering. Ruined piano sanctuaries, such as those nurtured by Ros Bolleter, provide spaces for these foreign instruments to see out their final days, their woods, metals, felts, glues and ivories absorbed by the landscapes into which they were imported. Once functional and regulated, they have become nuanced and ephemeral, singing as they will (or won’t) according to the day, the environment, the season, the climate.
In December 2023 and January 2024, I recorded a series of improvised weathered piano exchanges with Nadene Thériault-Copeland (of New Adventures in Sound Art, based in Ontario, Canada) for that year’s Art’s Birthday celebration.
Keen to continue the dialogue with other pianos closer to home, I invited Vanessa and Erik to respond to my recordings. They generously made their responses on the pianos of The Piano Mill at Harrigans Lane. In April 2024, I brought their recordings together with my own, alongside soundscapes recorded in the Murraylands and Granite Belt regions.
In bringing these recordings together, I became interested in the unexpected affinities and moments of delight that emerged across distance, between instruments, performers, places and times of year. The result is a series of four pieces arising from our shared practices of listening, environmental attunement and site-responsive improvisation. Each performance was recorded in a single take, meeting each instrument as it was found.
For me, these two sites carry very different meanings. Murray Bridge is where my family home remains and where I lived for 22 years. Its riverine environment is deeply familiar to me, and the park that now hosts the Piano Sanctuary was a beloved place of childhood exploration. Recording there was a return to a place already held in memory, encountered anew through the changing material lives of pianos I have visited since the sanctuary was founded in 2018.
The Piano Mill occupies a different place in my imagination: that of a pilgrimage site. Its mountain setting, singular architecture, collection of weathered instruments and sustained culture of experimental listening made Harrigans Lane a place towards which I had long felt drawn, and to which I have journeyed over the past three years.
The sanctuary and the mill suggest complementary ritual spaces, one of contemplation, the other of focused labour. Improvisation moves between these modes through listening, attending, sounding and working with what is present. As human performers, we surrender ourselves to this process, becoming conduits among the many forces already at play. Each encounter is both practice and ritual: a way of dwelling within the moment and following what it makes possible.
credits
released October 23, 2026
Jesse Budel performs on ruining pianos at the Murray Bridge Piano Sanctuary for tracks 1 to 4, recorded by Jesse Budel.
Erik Griswold performs on ruining pianos at the Piano Mill, Harrigans Lane for tracks 1 and 3, recorded by Vanessa Tomlinson.
Vanessa Tomlinson performs on ruining pianos at the Piano Mill, Harrigans Lane for tracks 2 and 4, recorded by Erik Griswold.
Field recordings made by Jesse Budel at Mobilong Swamp and Avoca Dell, South Australia, and at Harrigans Lane, Willsons Downfall, New South Wales.
Mixed by Jesse Budel.
Mastered by Joe Talia.
This project was made possible through a 2024 Create South Australia Fellowship, and 2024 Harrigans Lane Artist Residency.
Thanks to Nadene Thériault Copeland, Darren Copeland, Jocelyn Wolfe, Bruce Wolfe, Mary Findlay, and the Rural City of Murray Bridge.
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