Justice Yeldham's bloody bliss

Australian noise artist Lucas Abela invokes fear with broken glass and a microphone

By Paul DeMerritt Monday August 8, 2016 04:23 PM EDT

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It's impossible to prepare for a Justice Yeldham concert. Part noise show and part sideshow voyeurism, Yeldham's performance leverages the threat of physical pain to enrapture audiences. The Justice Yeldham moniker serves as an alter-ego for Australian musician Lucas Abela. As Yeldham, he improvises on nothing but a sharp pane of glass equipped with a contact microphone that's wired to an array of guitar pedals. While most would steer clear of the fatal object, Abela has spent the last 13 years turning it into a medium for transcendental noise experiments augmented by suspense.

“The one emotion my glass playing induces that other instruments couldn’t is a collective fear-based anxiety instilled in a crowd,” Abela says. “Everyone has been taught that broken glass is dangerous to handle so when faced with someone recklessly running the stuff across their face, people tend to get very worried for me to the point of tears, hysterics, being physically ill and even collapsing.”

While his performance is partially a spectacle of self-mutilation, the pain only serves to heighten the screeches and bellows Abela summons from his glass. He begins most performances by spreading lubricant across his mouth, allowing him to use a variety of vocal techniques that send waves of vibrations throughout the glass. The end result is a broad series of sounds, ranging from guttural growls to ear-piercing squeals, which vindicate Abela's creation as a bonafide instrument rather than a bloodletting gimmick.

The Justice Yeldham project only represents a slice of Abela's diverse creative output. His latest project, Gamelan Wizard, is a complex DIY-pinball machine outfitted with various metallic Indonesian instruments that players strike with pinballs. Though it's more kid-friendly, the one-of-a-kind contraption shares Yeldham's strategy of integrating audience emotions into a performance. “I guess all my installations serve a single purpose,” he says.” I want to give my audience the opportunity to perform noise music, as I’ve always felt it's far more rewarding to play than watch.”

Justice Yeldham plays Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery on Sat., Aug. 13. With Graham Moore. $7. 9 p.m. 88 Forsyth St. SW. 404-578-4430. www.eydrum.org.