Johnson, who put a substantial amount of his own money into last year’s festival, believes it’s important to speak out for Canberra musicians who, despite threatening changes at the ANU School of Music, “put so much effort into music for Canberra’s community”.

His festival is determinedly avant-garde. “Explorations in spontaneous, visionary and innovative experimental music,” he says.

And he is sure Canberrans are up for it.

He’s less enthusiastic about the year-round “musical offering” highlighted in the media lately, partly because it clutters up an already crowded music scene and, even more, because nobody gets paid. This perpetuates a common public view that musos and artists come gratis as a kind of optional add-on, he says.

With the centenaries of John Cage and Canberra in mind, an international approach seemed to Johnson to be spot-on for Canberra, so he’s engaged improvisational artists from Australia, Austria, the UK, Brazil, Switzerland, Canada and Germany for the event.

From Brazil come improvisational ensemble, the Abaetetuba Collective, who explore the saxophone, double bass, Brazilian fiddle and the Japanese “Shamisen”, while from NZ come pianist Hermione Johnson and free-jazz saxophonist Jeff Henderson.

Barcode Quartet features artists from Austria and the UK, as vocalist Annette Giesriegl, violinist Alison Blunt, pianist Elisabeth Harnik and percussionist/electronics artist Josef Klammer blend free improvisation and Swiss/Austrian free jazz.

Berlin pianist and composer, Magda Mayas, will perform in an improvised duet with jazz drummer from The Necks, Tony Buck, while young Canadian pianist/accordionist, Charity Chan, will focus on alternate timbres from the piano and accordion.

Electro-minimalists, Stasis Duo (Matt Earle, electronics and Adam Sussman, guitar /electronics), will create “complex webs of psycho-acoustic dynamics”. Canberra film maker Louise Curham creates visual equivalents to music.

And perhaps most exciting of all, the radical “Mr Violin”, free-improvising musician and 2012 Don Banks award-winner, Jon Rose, will play at the festival and guest-curate a number of sets, including one for 25 improvisers.

They’ll all be “opening all artistic valves to find unlimited sounds,” Johnson says.

“SoundOut 2013”, Theatre 3, Ellery Crescent, Acton, February 2-3, 1pm-5pm and 7pm-11:30pm. Bookings to 6257 1950.