D.A.Calf is an Australian musician, producer, field recordist, composer, sound designer, and sound and installation artist. He releases music via his own label nomachinethinking under his own name and as The Book of Ships and Onto-Carto.
He has presented work at Dark Mofo, Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), South by Southwest (Austin, TX), Brisbane Festival, Melbourne Festival, Melbourne Fringe, King’s Artist-Run Gallery, Sounds of the Underground (Amsterdam), Tilde Festival of New Music & Sound Art, and Federation Square.
As well as being a core member/arranger/producer of The General Assembly and The Hauntingly Beautiful Mousemoon, he has also been a touring member of Sal Kimber & the Rollin’ Wheel, Mike Noga, Low Talk, Single Twin and Near Myth and has toured Australia, Europe and the US multiple times.
He was co-founder and sound designer/composer of acclaimed immersive theatre company The Guerrilla Museum (with Marieke Hardy), founder of the recording studio/production suite The Institute Studio (Nicholas Building, Melb), where he has helped craft the sonic visions of dozens of artists and sound-based projects (most notably working repeatedly with Mo’Ju [fka Moju Juju] and Kira Puru), and is a sound designer (Sydney International Airport, Melbourne Theatre Company, Australian Music Vault, Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney, The Boon Companions).
In 2019 Calf undertook a residency at the Cité International des Arts in Paris where he developed two new works - a deconstructed opera based on the work of Georges Perec, and an audio mapping of the Paris Métro. He also returned to the former Yugoslav republics to continue a project focusing on monuments and memory as audible through sound.
In 2020, Calf has scored a feature-length documentary for Sea Shepherd, released several new musical productions and field recording suites, established an ongoing series of live streamed improvised performances (thirteen thus far), as well as collaborating with Kurdish asylum-seeker Farhad Bandesh.