In January 2006, Sean Baxter, David Brown, and I had the opportunity to record inside West Space—a Melbourne artist-run initiative—during its summer shutdown. With the gallery empty and silent, we spent two evenings exploring its acoustic and spatial dimensions through a series of improvised performances. Using percussion, electro-acoustic guitar, electronics, field recordings, and found objects, we responded directly to the material qualities of the space—its concrete floors and walls, reverberant surfaces, and the presence of an elevator shaft that acted like a resonant chamber.
The recordings were archived soon after and left untouched until the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, when the stillness of that period prompted me to listen back. What I found was a striking intimacy—a sonic record shaped as much by the architecture as by our actions. Room tone, reverberation, duct and electrical hums, and incidental noises imprint the performances with the space’s quiet presence.
Originally recorded by Thomas Couzinier and myself, and newly mixed and mastered in April 2025, After Hours is both a document and a memory. It captures a fleeting moment when Western Grey tuned into West Space—and allowed it to speak back.
credits
released February 13, 2026
Sean Baxter: percussion, room acoustics, and found objects
David Brown: electro-acoustic guitar
Philip Samartzis: electronics, field recordings, records, and microphones
West Space: material sound, room tone and acoustics
Performed at West Space, Melbourne on January 7 and 8, 2006
Recorded by Thomas Couzinier and Philip Samartzis
Mixed and mastered by Philip Samartzis on April 23 and 24, 2025
David Brown aka candlesnuffer (b. 1956, Melbourne, Australia) loves toucans, mannequins, tenor guitars and guitar
preparations, not to mention stomp boxes. He has developed a range of tiny sounds amplified outside their regular domain to function at rock volume. Occasionally plays a quartertone bass....more
I can't pick just one favorite track. This album feels like a single, continuous experience. It unfolds like an immersive story, guiding through impossibly massive structures and vast, bleached-empty layers of carefully crafted ambience. The piano pieces act as brief reminders of familiar spaces before you drift back into the expanse. 0x7b1
as an expression of the poetics of this moment, the unease in this work is comfortable and welcoming to me. it gives breathing room.
I'd love to read the limpet in any form it comes forward.
grateful 🙏 alexzito
The debut LP from the Chicago multidisciplinary artist strikes a bold balance between meticulous structure and improvisation. Bandcamp Album of the Day Mar 10, 2022
I’ll never forget hearing Watching It Unload for the first time. Simply perfect in every way and it just touches me in a way I can’t fully describe. Vladimir Grocic