The creative ensemble austraLYSIS (formed 1989) incorporates LYSIS, the former European contemporary music group, which commenced in 1970 in the UK. Both were founded by Roger Dean (double bass, keyboard, composer, computer interaction) and Hazel Smith (violin, text-creator). LYSIS was co-founded with John Wallace (trumpets, composer, who was co-director for the initial period), Ashley Brown (percussion), and Colin Lawson (clarinets). austraLYSIS has premiered, commissioned and/or created more than 150 musical compositions and new media works. It has appeared in most parts of the world (in more than 30 countries), including Europe, Asia, North America, and Australasia. It has made more than fifty commercial sound recordings, intermedia CD-Roms and works for radio, installations, and the web. Its broadcasts have been heard all over the world.

austraLYSIS is committed to both composed and improvised new music, sound art and intermedia work. Originally primarily a performance group, austraLYSIS presented a concert devoted to the work of Stockhausen on the South Bank in London in 1980, in association with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the composer himself. The group similarly focused on the work of Xenakis, Cage and Reich, as well as work by numerous less well-known composers. austraLYSIS placed particular emphasis on work from Australia and the UK, and collaborates with some of the most imaginative artists involved with contemporary music, sound and new media in Australia. austraLYSIS is now primarily a creative group, producing and presenting electroacoustic and computer-interactive music and multimedia works. Composers, improvisers, writers and video artists who are members include: Keith Armstrong (installation and video artist); Daniel Blinkhorn (composer and audio-visual artist); Sandy Evans (saxophones); Phil Slater (trumpet); Hazel Smith (writer and performer); Greg White (computer interaction; sound design). Two members currently work in the US: David Worrall (Australian composer and visual artist living in Chicago) and Will Luers (American video artist and writer, living in Portland, Oregon). Another member, Torbjörn Hultmark (trumpet, soprano trombone, electronics), is based in the UK.

 
austraLYSIS frequently relates its sound works and performances to other artistic media. For example, in the case of the visual arts, it has performed compositions by the artist Tom Phillips (UK); collaborated with painter Alan Davie (UK); created music related to the painters Fred Williams and Michael Johnson (Australia) and Frans Widerberg (Norway); and worked with Australian 3D artists such as Sieglinde Karl-Spence and Darani Lewers. Similarly, it has developed music/movement works such as TimeDancesPeace with the theatre and dance group Kinetic Energy. austraLYSIS has also created a number of text and sound pieces which were commissioned by the ABC including Bird Migrants (2014), The Afterlives of Betsy Scott (2007), Returning the Angles (2003), The Erotics of Gossip (2001), Nuraghic Echoes (1996), and Poet without Language (1991), all by Hazel Smith and Roger Dean — Poet Without Language was the ABC's nomination for the Italia Prize in 1992.  austraLYSIS collaborates with other ensembles, notably in 2010 (and again in 2012) with the enterprising vocal ensemble Halcyon. The combination of vocal and electroacoustic expertise has allowed both rare and premiere performances. austraLYSIS is also prominent in multimedia work and electronic literature. In 2016 the collaboration motions by Hazel Smith, Will Luers and Roger Dean was included in the Electronic Literature Collection 3: the premier international anthology of electronic writing. In the same year novelling, a recombinant digital intermedia work by Luers, Smith and Dean, published by New Binary Press, was shortlisted for the international Turn on Literature Prize. In 2018 the work won the major annual international prize for electronic literature, the Robert Coover Award (administered by the Electronic Literature Organisation).

austraLYSIS' breadth of style is illustrated on its many recordings and on those of its member musicians. Amongst austraLYSIS' CD releases are History Goes Everywhere (2015), Dean's double album MultiPiano — piano and computer interaction — (2013), Sonic Stones (2006), Present Tense (1997), The Next Room (1994) and Moving the Landscapes (1992), all on Australia' s leading label for new music, Tall Poppies. The double CD Resounding in the Mirrors was released on the UK label Future Music Records (2001).  In addition, Windows in Time (1994) represents a range of austraLYSIS' work, with music from Xenakis to Cresswell, as well as by members of the group. austraLYSIS also contributed to Hazel Smith's sound and performance-text CDs, Poet Without Language (1994) and Nuraghic Echoes (1996), both on Rufus Records.  In addition, substantial works of audio and intermedia are included in Hazel’s book The Erotics of Geography: poetry, performance texts, new media works (TinFish Press, Hawaii, 2008) — her most recent book is Word Migrants, Giramondo, 2016. One of austraLYSIS' recordings was listed as a Record of the Year, by Records and Recordings, UK, and several have been nominated for ARIA awards. An austraLYSIS album with Torbjörn Hultmark was released in May 2018 on Bandcamp (for digital download) and seems to be the first album featuring soprano trombone, piano and electronics.

austraLYSIS undertakes commissions and engagements for arts centres, festivals, broadcasting, recording and for international touring. It has completed thirteen overseas tours since 1990,and in 1992-3 performed all over Australia. In one such tour it was featured in three events at the leading new music festival in the UK, Huddersfield, and on BBC Radio 3. It has toured in the UK in both 2017 and 2018. It has previously been supported by the Australia Council as a ‘Key Organisation’ for its creative and performance work, and its work is presented by the ABC and other international broadcasters as well as in multimedia formats. austraLYSIS is also concerned with educational work and other means of fostering appreciation. Examples of such work include Roger Dean's presentation of an ABC radio documentary on improvisation, and in 2010 two programmes for the BBC in London on Australian Jazz; his books Creative Improvisation (Open University Press, UK, 1989), Sounds from the Corner (about Australian contemporary jazz, Australian Music Centre, 2005),  The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music (OUP, 2009) and the Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music (OUP, 2018); Hazel Smith's books The Writing Experiment (Allen and Unwin, 2005 ) and The Contemporary Literature-Music Relationship (Routledge, 2016); and Smith and Dean’s jointly edited book Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts (Edinburgh University Press, 2009). 

Some of austraLYSIS efforts in advocacy and dissemination are described in the talks/conversations section of HearSeeRead.
To access examples of our work see pages on this web site, particularly our HearSeeRead section and our index page; additional work is widespread on the web, including videos and sounds on Youtube and Bandcamp; for additional information on our composer-members see the Australian Music Centre site (go to our links page).

BOOKINGS and Enquiries to : austraLYSIS, PO Box 225, Milperra, NSW 2214, Australia. Telephone : + 61 481 309612.email : rogerdeanalysis@gmail.com or roger.dean@westernsydney.edu.au.