Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Image: Sage J Harlow  
© Photo by Josh Wells

Sage J Harlow is based in Boorloo. She composes text scores and writes poetry. Her first text score opera called O,D,E was produced by Tone List in 2025. She is a vocal improviser and performs under the name Sage Pbbbt. She uses a lot of what people often call 'extended vocal technique' (but has some feelings about that phrase). Her music is influenced by feminist, queer and trans theory. It is also steeped in ritual magick, meditation and anarchism. She can be quite silly. She tries to be kind. And today, she is our featured Beyond a Bio artist. So let's jump in to find out more about Sage's music and creative process.

How would you describe your music to someone hearing it for the first time?

I write text scores. These are scores that use text instead of traditional music notation. They can be instructional or they can be poetic. My scores are very 'open', which means that they could be played in a lot of different ways but still manage to sound like the same piece. They ask the performers to bring their own artistic voice to perform them. I am also a vocal improviser and make electronic music and a few other things.

How does a new work usually begin for you?

Hugely variable! Sometimes an idea comes fully formed. Sometimes I will play around with an idea for months (or years) before it congeals into a piece. Sometimes the writing and rewriting is how and idea for a piece comes - I might be writing and thinking about something and playing around with ideas and then something (else) will come out of that. Sometimes a piece is a combination or juxtaposition of different elements which again, can come fully formed or be part of a more playful process.

What ideas and sounds are inspiring you right now?

We have a weekly singing group in Boorloo called Rational Playtime which is about exploring Just Intonation. It is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Huge shout out to everyone involved, in particular Josten Myburgh and Danyon Saxon who have imparted much knowledge.

My dear friend Craig Pedersen is writing his PhD on the interpretation of text scores for the last few years. We have had some frabjous conversations inspired by his research. (And it has quite directly influenced some of my pieces of late.)

Can you tell us about a recent project or work?

I put on a text score opera last year called O,D,E. This was the biggest project that I have ever worked on. Josten Myburgh and WA label Tone List produced it. There were four singers - a black metal singer, opera singer, classically trained singer and improviser and a dancer who uses voice in improvisation. There was an ensemble of six musicians. The singers had libretto with the instructions to perform the words in such a way that the words were unintelligible. There were main themes for the characters that the musicians played. They had to balance playing those themes with supporting how the singers were performing their lines.

You can read more about it on mys website sagepbbbt.com/ode/

What do you hope listeners experience in your music?

(Hope is cruel.) I am sometimes interested in the relationship between composer, performer and audience (or a subset of those). And power and ethics of those relationships. Sometimes my scores explore how performers relate to each other. I am also an improviser and I am interested in how improvisation and composition interact and where the distinctions are between those practices. Sometimes my scores explore silence and how that is and isn't part of music.

I like the idea that a performer might find something new in their own practice while playing my scores. I like the idea that my scores might facilitate unexpected sounds, but in ways that are grounded in the performers own voices (rather than imposing upon them).

Where do you work best?

Often this is wherever the idea comes. I do like writing at home with tea, surrounded by books. I also like cafes. I am more often an early morning than a late night person. Most of my scores are text scores and from the outside, the process perhaps looks more like writing poetry than composing music. (There is some overlap for me. But text scores are quite different creatures than poems and the process, while sharing some attributes, is quite different.) All of that being said, I also make electronic music and have been exploring alternate tuning systems with synths. This is usually on a computer at home.

What's something people might not expect about your creative process?

In my improvisation practice I use a lot of ritual practices. I have explored possession experiences as well as insight meditation. These practices probably feed into my composition practice too. I am interested in identity and voice and the ethics of how we interact with each other. And for me, this 'each other' includes 'spirits'. I am agnostic about the objective existence of 'spirits'. But the intense experiences of these rituals - as well as in meditation - have made me think more deeply about notions of the self and other, how entangled we all are, and how reductive a singular notion of 'the self' seems.

If you had to name one Australian work everyone should hear, what would it be?

Josten Myburgh's Sculthorpe Studies is pretty amazing. I like how it celebrates and is also critical of Sculthorpe's work. To me it is elegant, compassionate and critically engaged. It feels like a beautiful continuation of the conversation about how to ethically make music on country. And it's gorgeous.

What's next for you?

I am working towards a solo dance/voice piece and a solo theatre/poetry show. I am also working on some other opera projects - some that involve film and one that involves multiple performers in different disciplines playing each individual character. And improvising.

Anything else you'd like to add?

There's info about me, links to scores and recordings on my website. I'd love to hear from you!