THE SOFT MACHINE PRESENTS: RITES OF WINTER, FLESH RITUALS + SIREN SONGS

Welcome to the Rites of Winter.

FLESH RITUALS & SIREN SONGS returns on the Winter Solstice, to burn all that does not

serve...

Join us for our journey into The Underground, led by invocations of song, blood and bone.

The night begins with a curation of dark alternative live music, fetishistic performance art, and the weaving of the two into one.

After the sets have ended DJ Syme Tollens will open the gates to an aural underworld and a performance by Vintage Vixen - heralding the extended ritual of celebration and closing with venue wide controlled chaos of performers as Rites of Winter guides, vessels and celebrants.

Come, bear Witness, and Dance with us deep into the night to welcome the Winter of 2025.

SCHEDULE

(All run times are approximate and subject to change)

Door Open / Opening Rituals - 7pm

Bands + Performances - 7:30-11pm

Vintage Vixen - 11:15pm

DJ Symes + Rites of Winter / Performances - 11:30-late

ŽIVA

ŽIVA combines Slavic-pop, darkwave & experimental electronica to create a unique sound.Her live performances are energetic & immersive, grounded in live looping and experimental visuals. ŽIVA’s debut album garnered over 75,000 streams worldwide, earning acclaim from Croatian & Australian media.

Alongside her music, Lucija conducts research in human-computer interaction, focusing on music heritage & a role of technology in its reinterpretation & preservation

ZCluster + Barefoot Juliette (Shibari)

ZCluster is the ongoing ritual of producer / guitarist INfest8 & vocalist Sai Jaiden Lillith.

Delivering powerful, striking, and engaging live performances since their inception, ZCluster have carved out a string of shows through the clubs and venues of Sydney, Melbourne, and Tasmania to consistent critical acclaim. Often involving elements of Shibari, self suspension and BDSM as well as collaborations with performance artists, their stage shows embrace chaos and a fierce, vulnerable eroticism.

Barefoot Juliette is an international Shibari artist and instructor based in Naarm, Australia, who has trained extensively with various Japanese and Australian Shibari teachers since 2020. She is fascinated by the many unique ways Shibari connects people through the medium of rope, in a manner that explores, transcends and challenges our pre-existing notions of what it means to relate with another human being. Juliette’s love for consensual sadomasochism and energetic communication through rope – always tinged with a touch of the Wild Feminine - shines through in her performances and teachings.

Eris & the Disciples

Eris God & The Disciples, uniting in the Naarm underground live music scene .... the hottest glimpse of a one night stand...The new and improved version of holy baptism With punk electronic riffs, filthy horns, dance, and hymns comparable to a climax, Eris God & The Disciples guide you through a ritualistic execution of live sound experimentation and interactive sideshow performance.

Vintage Vixen

Vintage Vixen is known for her irresistible allure and electrifying dance & floorwork performances that will leave you both terrified and turned on. She's a wild mix of passion and danger, sensuality and strength. Will she seduce you? Or tear you apart? Or maybe both? Vixen has over 15 years as a sex worker and model, and is also a floorwork instructor. She’s here to show you something unforgettable.

Infernal Desire Machine

Infernal Desire Machine is composed of Sai Jaiden Lillith and Eve X, sex workers, life partners and collaborators in art, magic and sex. Sai and Eve have been performing rituals in rope since 2019. They also provide BDSM / Sex education as Sacred Primal Arts.

Regularly hacking norms of gender, power and sexuality, they combine traditional Shibari with a punk aesthetic, creating anarchic narratives that interrogate myth & power, flesh and desire. A fusion of forms including sex magick, BDSM, dance, burlesque and performance art; they create visceral invocations of romance & magic, ordeal and catharsis, chaos and order.

Red Rakia Dance

Seduced by the siren song of The Disciples, Red Rakia emerged from the shadows to follow Eris into the underworld. There, she mesmerised all with the volatile beauty of the flame. Red Rakia dances with danger, practiced through decades of belly dance, swordplay, burlesque and fire performance. She will entice you into a formidable world of raw, elemental energy.

Hera & Eris

The echoes through the chambers, two voices wail through masks of mystery. Sounds calling all to the underworld, charming the ears of audiences Hera & Eris God showcase a hymn, a siren anthem that brings all together as one - short but sweet, vicious and charming. The calm before the storm.

Words of the wicked grace the walls of many rooms.

Ugly Alien Spit Baby

UglyAlienSpitBaby is a raw, queer, mixed-race force out of Naarm, tearing through racism, queerphobia, and the rot of the system with chaotic, confrontational art. Their work is a war cry for POC queer communities and a gut-punch to the privileged. No apologies. No sugar- coating.

Just pure, unfiltered rebellion. Lichxnlove, a queer first nations artist dedicated to their obsession with the natural world. Living and creating in Naarm they blend science and art to “create” powerful sculptures and paintings. Watch and follow Lichxnlove and UglyAlienSpitbaby as they celebrate the “power” of movement, rope play and their connection as life partners.

Eve X

Masked, dancing through the crowd and weaving the threads cast into an entwined rope thick with magics, the enigmatic Eve X fills the spaces in-between with ineffable moments and subtle works...seeking to capture the elusive, the atmos, the artistry and ‘soul component’ of sex.

With a background in fine arts and dance, Eve’s work is deeply embodied; informed by queerness, neurodivergence and chronic illness. It is also deeply transpersonal; weaving politics, ecology and spirituality into the story of the body.

DJ Syme Tollens

If there was ever a constant on the Australian underground music scene, the name Syme

Tollens would arguably be one most spoken. With 20+ years in a career which has seen him

accrue an impressive resume, Syme has held residency with the most infamous Melbourne

underground Clubs such as... Q Bar, Metro, Chevron, Palace, 161, Lounge and ABODE.

ETHOS

The Soft Machine welcomes you to Flesh Rituals and Siren Songs, a concatenation of erotic, connective and immersive performance art, industrial / alternative / electronic live music, DJ’s, beautiful freaks and ritual space.

A space for independent performers and artists who push the edges, explore the taboo, spiritual/magical and bizarre. We believe in creating and honouring community erotic containers, where art and free expression can be experienced. In a world determined to censor all the beautiful, primal mess of humanity we embrace flesh, blood and sex.

We’re also committed to creating a safe, judgement free space for you to experience this, and have a zero tolerance policy towards non-consensual and discriminatory behaviours. Please reach out to staff or organisers if you feel unsafe.