Earth Works

A collective evocation of the air, the very foundation of the pipe organ – Robert Curgenven's Earth Works offers a liberation and extension of the pipe organ’s possibilities. This is whole body listening – an absorbing experience of sound’s tactility and intimacy – from breath-like gestures through to a tectonic, architectural summoning. Curgenven will present the world premiere of a new work for the UQ Art Museum’s recently refurbished grand pipe organ alongside Australian premieres of intricately shimmering works, engulfing the audience in sonic textures. 

Following a series of sold out shows for AGENESIS with Kat McDowall, at the 2025 Dark Mofo festival – Curgenven's Earth Works  will transform the pipe organ at UQ Art Museum, with its 3,283 pipes, into an instrument that breathes at an architectural scale.

Robert Curgenven produces albums, performances and installations that emphasize physicality, our embodied response to sound and its correspondence to location, air, weather and architecture. His recorded output spans pipe organ works Tailte Cré-Umha (Bronze Lands) and SIRÈNE, through to Climata, recorded in fifteen Turrell Skyspaces across nine countries. Curgenven’s work with pipe organs has seen him recognised as a leading proponent of the contemporary reimagination of this instrument, including commissions for New Music Dublin (Ireland) and Richard Thomas Foundation (UK) with presentations for Sydney Festival (Sydney Town Hall), Stavanger Konserthus Norway), Cork Midsummer Festival and Organ Sound Art Festival (Copenhagen). Curgenven has produced a diversity of sound and spatial works for National Gallery of Australia, Musée du Quai Branly (Paris), National Museum of Poland (Krakow), MONOM/4DSound (Berlin), Palazzo Grassi (Venice), National Sculpture Factory (Ireland) and festival performances including Maerzmusik (Kraftwerk Berlin), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), Ultrahang (Budapest) and Insomnia Festival (Tromsø/Norway).

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