Teletopa 1972

Live in the studio, in conversation with Jim Denley and Geoffrey Barnard, discussing the new release – Teletopa 1972. Teletopa were a groundbreaking electroacoustic-improvisation group operating in Sydney Australia from 1970 to 1972. The group were years ahead of their time. The core members were David Ahern, Geoffrey Collins, Peter Evans, and Roger Frampton. They played various acoustic instruments, such as violin, flute, and percussion, amplified via contact microphones. Tonight’s guests were linked to the group in a number of ways – Geoffrey Barnard played with the group for a few months in 1970, and Jim Denley saw them in concert as a 14 year old. As a precocious teenager, Ahern had studied with Stockhausen, and been exposed to the improvisation scene in London, including the seminal group AMM. After group leader David Ahern died tragically young at the age of 40 in 1988, Geoffrey inherited the Teletopa archives, including tapes of live recordings. One of those recordings was outstanding in its quality, having been recorded at the NHK studio in Tokyo Japan, when the group visited that country while returning to Australia after a world tour. Two 50 minute group improvisations were recorded in the session. Now, those recordings have been released on Jim Denley’s Split Records label, as a 2 CD set, and 3 LP set. Tonight, we play excerpts from the release, and Geoffrey and Jim discuss Teletopa, as well the vibrant but controversial contemporary music scene in Sydney in the early 1970s, the life of the brilliant but flawed Ahern, and the legacy of the group. Jim himself has become one of the leading figures in the Australian improvisation scene, and he now acknowledges the impact that Teletopa had on his 14 year old self.