“The Ensemble Offspring orchestra excelled, especially in the quickfire transition to a demented big band uproar…The interplay..with the acoustic instrumentation and electronic score was exhilarating and, in the end, gently seductive…this moody, sometimes quite disturbing work made its mark in what was a standout festival concert.” – Keith Gallasch, RealTime
“..exhilarating and intelligently constructed…visceral joyous music at its most elemental. Plekto was Offspring and new music at its stimulating best.” – Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald
“Plekto was contemporary music’s equivalent of a Heston Blumenthal tasting plate…this was edgy music that repaid putting in the hard listening yards.” – Clive Paget, Limelight
“What I appreciate most is the delicacy in the use of film, a rhythmic/visual intervention appearing and disappearing in and out of score as do the instruments themselves…The Ghan is less a radical take on the world around us than a reminder of the constancies of the battle between us and the environment, but yes, a cautionary tale (as Rose would have it) on how we may lay tracks into our future.” – Zsuzsanna Soboslay, RealTime
“…always thought-provoking and never dull. With world premieres, Australian premieres, commissions and opportunities for a new generation of contemporary music practitioner, this (first Hatched concert) felt genuinely important.” – Clive Paget, Limelight
“Extreme and frequent shifts in dynamic and texture made for a performance that came across like a series of hugely enjoyable heart attacks.” – Luke Iredale, Sounds Like Sydney
“In a week when I went to concerts performed by our major orchestras it is this one that will linger longest in the memory for its excellence in performance, determination to be different and for the freshness that was evident to all. The co-artistic directors of EO…have got the mix right and they and the other members of EO deserve as much applause as the two featured artists.” – Alan Holley, classikON
“This idea of being transported is an apt allegory for what Ensemble Offspring have begun to explore with this production. The conundrum of “audience development” is a riddle that has arts organisations scratching their heads …Any change in the established norm must be led by trail-blazers willing to buck the trend and take a risk. Ensemble Offspring are pioneers and with this production they have left the first footprints in the sand of an exciting new territory for Australian performance.” – Maxim Boon, Limelight
“With a budget probably less than the average North Shore children’s party, composer Damien Ricketson, director Carlos Gomes, Ensemble Offspring (Claire Edwardes, Jason Noble, Bree van Reyk) dancers Narelle Benjamin, Kathy Cogill, and performer Katia Molino have created a playful and original exploration of gesture, sounds and the ghosts of machines that produce them.” – Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald
“Well, Secret Noise is an installation, really. Well, no, it’s more dance theatre. Well, it’s both. And a concert, or recital. With a little bit of circus sideshow. It’s all of these things. And more. Edgy isn’t always assimilable, but the virtuosity of Ensemble Offspring and its esteemed partners, their collective sense of genre-defying adventure, commitment and striving for excellence distinguishes this work as truly cutting-edge.” – Lloyd Bradford Syke, Syke on Syke