SERENE AILMENT-"Results may vary. Side effects -will- occur" EXPERIMENTAL HARSH NOISE MAGNIFICANCE.
SERENE AILMENT-"Results may vary. Side effects -will- occur" EXPERIMENTAL HARSH NOISE MAGNIFICANCE.
AS PART OF:
BLACK PLANET
25TH JULY TWO VENUES THREE STAGES 21 BANDS
O come, creatures of the night!
Bear witness to BLACK PLANET: A Celebration of Australian Dark Music.
Descending for the first time as a full-spectrum gathering of darkness, Black Planet hosts 3 stages across two iconic venues: The Bendigo Hotel & Nighthawks. Built for devotees of sonic extremity and shadow culture, this inaugural edition transforms the night into a living cathedral of sound, atmosphere, and chaos.
The night will be separated into 3 spaces:
The Ossuary (Bendi Main Room) - A shrine to brutality and all things heavy
The Void (Bendi Upstairs) - A chamber devoted to noise, ambient, drone and experimental
The Black Hearts Lodge (Nighthawks) - A sanctuary of goth, darkwave, post-punk and nocturnal romance
Headlining Black Planet 2026 is THE AMENTA - One of metal's most uncategorizable acts, THE AMENTA have been synthesising the ugliest aspects of death, black, and noise into a unique maelstrom for over 25 years. Well-known across the world for their intense live shows, THE AMENTA combine speed, anger, and a weird sound with smoke and strobes to create a brutal, overwhelming experience.
Joining them across the 3 stages are: Mammon’s Throne, Hybrid Nightmares, Victoria K, Küntsquäd, Bentham’s Head, Knife, Npcede, Živa, Inaugural, Chiffon Magnifique, Blood In The Champagne, Dystropolis, Palliative, Blood of a Pomegranate, Military Position, Anocht, AnnaBortionist, Serene Ailment, Angellis Taliuu, and Koolooz.
Some of the strongest arguments for the Void's existence as a dedicated room are the acts who've been doing this work for over a decade without ever needing a "band" in the traditional sense. Black Planet giving that kind of long-haul solo practice equal billing with full bands says something honest about how deep Melbourne's noise scene actually runs.
ARTIST: SERENE AILMENT
Serene Ailment is the long-running power electronics/drone/dark ambient solo project of Melbourne musician Lulu Collard, active since 2009. Her astonishing work — built from analogue synthesis, harsh noise and improvised live sets — has been described as splittingly harsh and serenely melancholic in the same breath, bypassing conscious listening to work more directly on the nervous system. She's collaborated widely across Melbourne's experimental circuit, including releases with Xenosine and DJ Chancey, and has even shared bills with industrial metal psychos Knife before — this isn't unfamiliar territory for either act.
INTERVIEW:
1. The Void is framed as a chamber, not a stage — something more enclosed, more about atmosphere than spectacle. How do you think about the difference between playing to a room and playing inside one?
There is a significant difference. Playing to a room insists on as much great expectation as an audience can give back to the performer, whereas playing inside one, understandably, is informed by the physical acoustics. I’m interested in the former with what it implies to share a shared communal space with inebriated noiseheads, knowing that the crowd, who’s there to have a good fucken night, will discover even more fascinating local acts on the way.
2. Noise/drone/ambient work often lives or dies on what it does to time — does it stretch, collapse, disappear? What's Serene Ailment doing to the room, ideally, forty minutes in?
Time becomes a tool in my arsenal, as much as it literally dictates my steady hand on my delay pedals. Results may vary. Side effects -will- occur.
3. Black Planet's being pitched as a "living cathedral of sound" — where does your most recent release, or whatever's next in the pipe, sit inside that? Anything dropping around the show we should know about first?
My most releases over the last few years have mostly revolved around raw live recordings, as a deliberate artistic choice. I am sitting on a few shows that may or may not get mangled into something down the road. I try not to think too far ahead given my incredibly chaotic schedule between projects, let alone repurposing conceptual amoebas if it feels right.
4. This is billed as a celebration of Australian dark music specifically. What does that qualifier — Australian — actually mean to what Serene Ailment does, if anything? And why does this underground still matter to you, this far in?
THE COLONY MAKES ME VOMIT. I DON'T GIVE A DAMN. I SHIT ON AUSTRALIA.
It should come to no surprise that I love dark music at its most primal level. I’ve never wanted Serene Ailment to venture beyond the underground. I’ve been doing this project for 16 years, and am quite happy with all that I’ve achieved inside each of its phases and experiments. I value authenticity in art, and I deeply feel the goal of any serious artist is to stay true and supportive of other projects that resonate with whatever it is that makes you tick, not just your own.
5. Bendigo and Nighthawks are two venues, three rooms, one night. What are you actually trying to do to a room when you play it — what's the physical or psychic effect you're chasing?
A unique experience for all involved. I trust my audience of reliable punishers (and I assure you that was a high compliment) over the spectrum of heavy-adjacent music to meet me somewhere in the middle. I think back to a festival set I played in 2022, having taken on a comically subtle approach to increasing tension as my focus for the night's improv. One audience member munted off her face was physically worn down by the extreme loudness of my show, which she correctly perceived was my purest intention, while another had literally fallen asleep during a good deal of it, with only brief moments of them waking up feeling mesmerised by the intricacies they had picked up on in-and-out of consciousness. These opposing reactions, both from being under the influence and dissociative exhaustion of the body, as a point of reference, are generally what fascinates me with my approach to sound art and how power electronics ambience can affect people differently without having to do terribly much to get a gut reaction. Getting out as much as they put in, as the adage goes...
6. What drives you as you are involved in so many killer acts, and this multifocus must have a source of inspiration and creativity?
LINKS:
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SO GRAB A TICKET ASAP AND START WORKING OUT HOW YOU CAN SEE EVERY BAND...SOMEHOW
KILLER PRICES TO BE HONEST;
Both venues: $75+BF
The Bendigo Hotel Only: $45+BF
Nighthawks Only: $35+BF
ALL PICS ARE FROM THE ARTIST OR BAND'S SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
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