As someone who grew up in a social-housing community, James’s practice examines the hauntings, spectres, imaginings, vocalities, and ghostly refrains of neoliberal socio-structural decay and working-class melancholia via the ear of the sonic as radical sociological praxis.
James’ work and research overflows through pre(care)ious and transversal modes of collaboration and fabulated inte(ar)vention - via what he terms houso poetics, via a range of lo-fi ‘scored’ and bricolage’d interventions and agitations, via documentary, community organising, ethnography, workshopping, essaying, pedagogy, critical fabulation, fieldwork, conversation, writing, song, performance - among works for radio, and instrumental/electronic music.
James’s compositions have been performed at various international festivals and venues, including HighSCORE in Pavia (Italy), Gaudeamus/Screendive in the Netherlands, Arts Incubator in Seoul, Impulse New Music Festival, and Charlotte New Music in North Carolina. James’ music has been played by leading ensembles such as Ensemble Offspring (Sydney), Gondwana Choirs, Ensemble Mise-En (New York), and by individuals such as Grammy-nominated violist Diana Wade and saxophonist Sam Gill. Hazel has also composed music for renowned dance practitioners and organisations including Dancemakers Collective, International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy, The West Australian Ballet, Form Dance Projects, Sydney Dance Company, Kristina Chan, Omer Backley-Astrachan, James O’Hara, and Rhiannon Newton.
More generally, Hazel's work has been exhibited, presented, and/or performed at various art spaces and institutions nationally and internationally, including: Stegi Radio; Cashmere Radio; HAIR ARI; Seventh Gallery; The Ethics Centre; Kings Artist-Run; PACT Centre; Speak Percussion; Mutant Radio (Georgia); Liquid Architecture; Museum of Contemporary Art; Brand X; Metro Arts; Firstdraft; Performance Space/Carriageworks; March Dance; Collingwood Yards; ABC Radio National; Pinnacles Gallery; CEMENTA; Crawl Space Radio/Bus Projects; Maitland Regional Art Gallery; VIVID; Global Week in Seoul; Bundanon Trust; Metro Arts; Sydney Conservatorium of Music; The Lock-Up; Sydney Fringe Festival; National Young Writers’ Festival; DLUX Media Arts; Gaudeamus/Screendive Festival; Sydenham International; World Acoustic Ecology Forum; University of Helsinki; Gosford Regional Gallery; Australian Music Centre; Limelight Magazine; Backstage Music; The West Australian Ballet; Critical Path.
James’ writing and research have been published with: Acoustic Ecology Review; ABC Radio National; Limelight Magazine; Deleuzine (UK); Firstdraft Gallery; Carriageworks Journal; ADSR ZINE; Australian Humanities Review; Resonate Journal; DISCLAIMER/Liquid Architecture; and Act: Zeitschrift für Musik & Performance (peer-reviewed).
In recognition of solid work in the experimental sound community, Hazel was awarded the APRA-AMCOS Art Music Award (Experimental Category) in 2022, together with Elia Bosshard, for their work with ADSR ZINE. In 2021, he was selected as an ABC Top 5 Researcher (Arts), a program supported by the University of Melbourne and the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2023, James was one of four composers across Australia selected as a finalist in the APRA-AMCOS Professional Development Awards (Classical/Experimental).
In 2024, James’s work was selected as a finalist in the Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change, for which he received an Honourable Mention for the work underclass(auto)theology.
James has studied composition with Johannes Kreidler (Berlin), Peter Ablinger (Berlin), and Ceceilia Arditto (Amsterdam) among others.
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From 2023-2024 Hazel was an artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris). He is developing a new audio work for ABC Radio National and new music for the West Australian Ballet. James is a PhD Candidate in Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne.
Scores as structures; structures as scores.