Sound and music pioneers Julian Day and Luke Jaaniste reveal the sonic secrets of spaces and the art of human behaviour.

Ethereal, crystalline tones ring out over a grassy park before being quickly consumed by the thrum of suburban traffic. Buses rumble past, trees rustle, and snatches of conversation ripple through the air. Another pure tone expands outwards with a shimmer, only to be enveloped by the surrounding space. People stop to listen, their attention drawn away, if only for a moment, from their mobile phones and hectic, urban schedules. Without knowing it they have become the audience to an immersive sound performance-installation by new music duo, Super Critical Mass.

Julian Day and Luke Jaaniste formed Super Critical Mass as a response to the traditional symphony orchestra. “We met while studying at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music,” Day explains. “As composition students, the ‘holy grail’ was the orchestra – a large body of people uniting to create a big sound. Orchestras, however, tend to be very hierarchical, immobile and open to only the very few.” This inspired Day and Jaaniste to create a dynamic, flexible and “democratic framework for immersive sound performance.” Put simply,...