Maydena Creek

About the album

get the vinyl LP from Program Records:

Maydena Creek is the first new solo album since 1991 for Australian post-punk icon David Chesworth, renowned for his 80s groups Essendon Airport, Whadya Want? and David Chesworth & Bill McDonald, plus his composition and sound sculpture works of the last four decades. The album is released on vinyl by Program Records and digitally by Chapter Music on 16 October 2026. 

The album is named after a creek that runs beneath a Tasmanian rainforest, a recording of which appears briefly on the album. Subterranean geological vibrations combine on Maydena Creek with modern distortions and surreal imagery to form a compelling and hallucinatory work.

In a typical Chesworthian move, the music explores two techno forces from very different creative camps: the quirky 1970s Fun Machine organ, with its surprisingly credible drum machine and chord generator, and the more egg-headed Moog Subharmonicon, which draws on forgotten early 20th-century electronic instruments such as the Trautonium and Rhythmicon. Chesworth combines the two to generate his characteristic polyrhythms and deep harmonic undertones.

The result is an album of off-kilter but strangely catchy electronic pop, underpinned by its experimental vibes. Maydena Creek also sees David return to singing on three tracks, after decades of instrumental composition & working with other vocalists.

With a career now spanning more than 40 years, David is renowned for many things, but probably best known for his pioneering minimal synth explorations on 1979 album 50 Synthesizer Greats, and his hypnotic and beguiling work alongside guitarist Robert Goodge in Essendon Airport, who have been active on and off since 1978.

Essendon Airport have had a welcome renaissance of late, playing shows for Meredith Music Festival, Jerkfest, Phoenix Central Park and Hope St Radio. 2025 album MOR (their first since 1981’s Palimpsest) saw Essendon Airport revisit their late 70s minimalist duo material with their current five-piece lineup (including Graham Lee of the Triffids and The KLF on pedal steel). The record was nominated for an AIR Award for Best Electronic Album.

David formed the David Chesworth Ensemble in the 90s and won an ARIA Classical Music Award for his 2006 composition Panopticon. With partner Sonia Leber he has created acclaimed sound art and video installations for the Venice and Sydney Biennales. The National Gallery of Victoria holds an archive of Chesworth’s early Innocent Records LPs in its permanent collection.