

''It's a slightly dubious discipline,'' concedes Batt with a smile. ''The classic example is that of a Greek vase; the idea that you could take a piece of pottery thousands of years old and use various techniques to extract sound from it - say the muttering of the potters as they shaped the clay on the wheel. The science of it is a bit ridiculous, but it's a beautifully romantic idea.''

It's not the only romantic notion the childhood friends will employ when they perform The Fornax Experiment at this year's Quiet Music Festival. Staged in a tiny staircase amid the abandoned pipes and furnaces of Moonee Ponds' Incinerator Arts Complex, it will layer live harpsichord music with melodies crafted from clinking metal and echoed murmurs. The latter have been recorded during field trips to the complex over the past couple of months - tiny metal doors have been edged open and pushed shut, pipes struck, whispers, footsteps and gusts of wind recorded.

The two hope their music will transport listeners to a time when the building lived another life. ''Back in the 1920s, all the rubbish brought here ended up as ash. So there's this idea of everyday objects that had different lives and functions being loved, worn out, discarded and then reduced to cinders. You can think of the ash they left as a footprint of a particular society or way of life,'' says Russell-Head.

The performance will be accompanied by footage of everyday objects catching fire, with the crackling of flames funnelled back into the soundtrack. The film, says Batt, neatly dovetails into another of the romantic concepts the two like to toy with: ''hauntology''. Borrowed from the writings of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who initially applied it to Marx, Batt says its musical application is a relatively light-hearted. ''It's a way of thinking about how history influences the present more than anything. About planting ideas in people's minds and then using music to appeal to their imaginations.''

Much like a haunted house tale, he says. ''If someone tells you a story about that house on the hill being creepy, then the next time you walk past it you'll look for something strange. Hauntological music follows the same idea. If we tell you a story about what happened here, you can listen to the music and create your own narrative.''

Russell-Head, who is still pondering how she'll lug her beloved harpsichord on to its stage (a tiny landing between two flights of stairs), is looking forward to people's reaction to her instrument's distinctive sound. ''It looks a bit like a piano but it doesn't sound like one, and it doesn't sound like a guitar but the strings are plucked. And it's so rarely played, particularly outside a classical context.''

Batt and Russell-Head are using The Fornex Experiment to test-run ideas they hope to employ to greater effect if their proposal for a Melbourne Laneways Commissions is successful this year. ''It was a chance to bring a lot of ideas together to see what works. The great thing about the festival is that its audience comes with really open attitudes and ideas about listening, so there's a lot of freedom to experiment,'' says Batt.

Now in its fourth year, the Quiet Music Festival has expanded what was initially a one-day event to a three-day program. Its appealing catchcry- ''in a world of higher, faster, louder, Quiet Music embraces the deeper, slower and softer'' - encompasses a range of intriguing concepts, including the Musing Studio that, equipped with easels, paper, charcoal and pastels, invites audience members to respond to music by drawing. There will also be a Laptop Orchestra, configured much like a traditional chamber ensemble, performing experimental compositions by the likes of John Oswald and La Monte Young and a Pandora's box sound installation, which blends the music of a hurdy-gurdy with harp and tarhu.

Quiet Music Festival, Incinerator Arts Complex, April 30 to May 2.