Maxine Funke is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most singular and internationally celebrated experimental artists. Working primarily with voice, guitar, electronics, and field recordings, her practice occupies a liminal space between song, improvisation, and sound art — intimate in scale yet expansive in reach. Her recordings have been released on some of the most respected imprints in contemporary experimental music internationally, including Diciples (UK), World Of Echo (UK), Feeding Tube Records (USA), Looking Glass (USA), A Courful Strom (Aus) and others. She has toured Germany & Australia, performing at venues and festivals where her work is received as a vital contribution to the global free-improvisation and experimental song tradition.

In Aotearoa, Funke’s work is admired by those deep within the experimental music community, but she remains underrepresented in mainstream arts funding conversations — a common condition for artists whose primary audiences are international. She has collaborated with artists across multiple continents, maintained longstanding relationships with European experimental communities, and built a recorded catalogue of unusual depth and consistency. A 2026 European tour would see her performing to audiences for whom her records are already touchstones, while generating new work and exchange that enriches her practice on return.