Playfreely 2021: The Observatory’s Experimental Music Festival Is Back To Break New Ground

The improvisational music festival returns this year as an art exhibition (Credit: Playfreely)

Can festivals even exist in the scene’s state of flux? Back with their knack for disruption, The Observatory wants to challenge this quandary with the return of its Playfreely Festival this year. A labour of love by the industry-defining art-rock outfit, the annual event is an improvised music initiative that dodges categorisation and conservative songcrafting approaches. It returns after leap-frogging over 2020 due to the pandemic, enlivening various locations around Goodman Arts Centre as an art exhibition.

Scenes from Playfreely 2019: The Transparency Of Turbulence (Credit: Third Street Studio)

Titled Playfreely: Nervous Systems, the socially-distanced event acknowledges the seemingly perpetual limbo that plagues the performance sphere. “As we are stranded within the borders of the Dark Ages, systems and states of nerves come under the peril of an unseen spectre,” the synopsis reads on its official website. “These absurd times have propelled us into reflecting the deprivation of physicality and challenge our common understanding of how music and sound is presented.”

dj sniff from Tokyo is one of the several peculiar acts on the festival’s lineup (Credit: Playfreely)

Instead of live acts, Playfreely: Nervous Systems will come alive with sound installations by an international lineup. This includes works by Gijs Gieskes from The Netherlands, a device fiddler who transforms consumer hardware into sonic instruments; Makoto Oshiro from Japan, a core member of radical installation trio, The Great Triangle; and Singapore’s own Spang & Lei, a duo that explores analogue modes of performance with interdisciplinary mediums. The Observatory will also collaborate with Yuta Nakayama on a ceramics sound installation. These manifestations of sound are not your run-of-the-mill creations, and witnessing their formulation in this exhibition promises to be an engrossing eye-opener.

Playfreely is an initiative by art-rock band, The Observatory (Credit: The Idealiste)

Playfreely: Nervous Systems, 12-21 March 2021, Goodman Arts Centre, 90 Goodman Road, Singapore 439053. Open weekdays 3pm-4pm (via email appointment), 4pm-7pm (walk-in), and weekends 11am-7pm (walk-in). Guided tours by The Observatory are available on 13 and 20 March, 4pm-5pm. Book a slot here.