While the theatre world was immersed in the double-bill opening of Sydney Theatre Company’s The Harp in the South, another marathon performance was taking place in Sydney. Billed as a ‘micro festival’, Extended Play at City Recital Hall saw the city’s new music community descend on Angel Place for 12 straight hours of music. While I described it in a preview piece as part “tasting-plate”, the reality was more like a sumptuous multi-course banquet of music at which one could gorge until sated – and then gorge some more.

Extended Play opened at midday with Elision Ensemble, whose set ranged from the swirling, sometimes brutal electronics of Aaron Cassidy’s The Wreck of Former Boundaries and colourful sonic textures of Richard Barrett’s world-line to Liza Lim’s complex, glittering solo The Su Song Star Map, performed by Graeme Jennings on violin. The next 12 hours revolved around the handful of main acts in the auditorium, with smaller-scale performances orbiting in spaces strewn across the venue, from the Level 1 Function Room to the bars and open spaces on Levels 2 and 3.

Elision Ensemble at Extended Play. Photo © Poppy Burnett

Brisbane-based...