Kelly Fliedner

I live in Boorloo (Perth, Western Australia) with my husband Robbie and our children Hetty and Ingo. I stay up and make things until the still hours of the night. White shirts and sequinned dresses; embroidered drawings on crinkled linens; reclaimed and reused textiles stitched together; banners and blankets; hats with bows and quilted tote bags; little schemes and forever works in process. 

During the day I am a writer, curator and arts administrator interested in many things but most importantly how to respond to and support local art practice, culture and politics. ‘How do we live a good life?’ is a question that guides me in both my home and my work and everything converges inward and spirals out from there. 

What influence does music have in your life as a creative?:

As a young person I dabbled in the playing of many instruments and was terrible at all of them but I found a love of choir where I learnt how to read music and feel the swallowing collective rush of singing with others. 

I am so very fortunate that I’ve many very talented musicians in my life with eclectic tastes and interests and who I’ve learned a lot from over the years. These people are friends, family and colleagues. I’ve written a lot about music and musicians and have always been interested in how music, art and experimental performance speak to and inform each other. I’ve curated experimental music seasons in galleries and carried many amps and speakers and cables from the boots of dusty cars. I’ve pored cheap pots while watching post-punk bands and made cocktails in jazz venues and loved all of it. 

Because I have two young children live music is less of a priority in my life at the moment but we listen to all sorts of things while we eat, play, bath and make. High on rotation at the moment is Bryan Ferry, Indonesian gamelan, Dua Lipa, Ursula K Le Guin’s electronic and anthropologic album ‘Music and Poetry of the Kesh’, David Byrne, St. Vincent, David Byrne AND St. Vincent (haha), Lizzo, Simon and Garfunkel, Ariana Grande, Hindustani classical music by Nikhil Banerjee, Balinese and Javanese music, and lots of electro-acoustic and post-minimalist western classical from the 20th and 21st century. 

Witnessing Hetty’s appreciation develop has been life-affirming. But seeing my own taste change and respond to her has been a revelation. Next generation Disney led by the likes of Lin-Manuel Miranda is really so very good. We listen to Moana and Encanto while we craft. What an absolute pleasure. Music is part of our house and our lives just as making and craft is. They run in parallel and bounce off each other: constant companions. 

Tell us about your playlist:

This playlist is for anyone who needs to unwind, for the anxious amongst us, for someone at the end of a long week, a cup of tea nearby or a glass of wine in hand. It’s inspired by a friend’s own ‘anxious’ playlist and does the job of calming me down and focusing my thoughts while reminding me of this dear person. 

The list starts with Paul Drescher’s ‘Channels Passing’, a beautiful composition that references the psycho-acoustic phenomena known as ‘channeling’ or ‘streaming’ in which the listener breaks up what may be a single or dual melodic entity into two or more groups, usually based on register, timbre, and rhythm. It’s an incredibly rich and giving piece that loops in and out. 

From there the playlist just kinda rolls on with a fair bit of furniture music (perfect to sew to, not too distracting but interesting enough); some virtuosi piano by Ukrainian Lubomyr Melnyk (a dense cascading of sound to lull you into trance sewing); some more fun moments like the punk futurism of ‘Dream baby dream’; electronic and organic; sad and whimsical. I hope you enjoy.