Excerpts from a video and sound installation originally conceived for CPU at ESC im Labor, Graz, Austria, October 2008.

The prototype consists of a close analysis of three faces of indigenous people from Sarawak… two from the Kenyan community who had been relocated from where the Bakun Dam is being built and a Bidayuh woman from where the Bengoh Dam is proposed to inundate.

The soundscape was generatively created from a piece that ran for 9 days. It consists of field recordings made from Iban longhouse communities in 1999.

The entire prototype ran looped at 45 minute intervals utilising the largest projection surface possible within the ESC gallery.

 As a young man, Ballard influenced my thinking of the world we inhabit more than any other author. The Drowned World still inhabits part of my consciousness and I reflect on it when ever I find myself in the forests of Borneo or the savannas of southern Africa.

A classic portrait of Mr Ballard, reminding me very much of my father, hung in my studio for nearly two decades. He had become a companion of sorts, watching over the endless hours of music making, writing and the heart breaks in between.

Art... the freedom to innovate through it, to stimulate and remind us of the interconnectedness of things, that we are made of the same stuff of stars, is part of the legacy he will leave me and I am sure many more besides.

Journey well, Mr Ballard...

• Simon Sellars pothumous dedication to Mr Ballard

Mark Tallon, Son of Science Ensemble, supporting Damo Suzuki, Revolver, Melbourne, January 2004

Border Song is largely inspired by my father's early life, growing up in Eastern Europe through WW II, loss of youth, seeking out his White Russian mother... It's an epic tale to be sure!

Border Song began its journey to your ears in the mid-1990's during which time I was writing the spoken word opera, Auslaender. I began work on the score around the time I'd been working on the Son of Science album. I'd sung the first version, but had the talented Mark Tallon (No More Bandicoots, Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk) sing another and it was his take that this current mix is based on. We went on to perform it several times in the Son of Science Ensemble.

Mark's slightly tougher vocals and Adrian Symes' soprano sax were recorded in Melbourne late August 2007. 

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Thanks to Steve Law for engineering this recording and Adrian for use of his house and lovely microphones. Mixed down at The Schoolhouse, Mongarlow, NSW.

The Border Song video clip, produced byJohn Power, was completed early 2008.