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  • ollie olsen ripIan "Ollie" Olsen.

    Australian underground music has lost two important figures in Melbourne’s Ian “Ollie” Olsen and Andrew Picouleau.

    Picouleau was best-known as a member of Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, The Metronomes and Sacred Cowboys, while Olsen was in Whirlywirld, Orchestra of Skin and Bone, Noand Max Q, the short-lived but high-profile collaboration with Michael Hutchence.Both passed last week after protracted health issues. 

    Multi-instrumentalist Olsen was a key driver of the Australian post-punk electronic movement of the late 1970s whose punk lineage went back to The Young Charlatans (home to Rowland S Howard) and The Reals. Her was musical director for “Dogs in Space”, Richard Lowenstein’s gritty 1986 depiction of Melbourne’s underground music scene, and went on to make a mark internationally in electronic music and soundtracks.