Thanks for joining us on this glorious Sydney Thursday. Catchup with everything we've been publishing today, and join us for more coverage again tomorrow

•  Review: Oedipus Schmoedipus
• Remaking the Matrix in Sydney: sweaty suits and cut out pigeons
• Video: Band of Magicians' James Galea and Justin Willman show us a magic trick 
• Audio: Sydney festival podcast episode two
• Review: Limbo
• Video: Andrew Frost on Project 28 by Roman Ondák
• Scaling new heights: Australia's love affair with circus shows no sign of waning
• Review: Matmos

Samaris’s Josridur Akacotir took time out to chat with Helen Davidson about the learning curve of a meteoric rise, 19th century Icelandic poetry and why attention on their youth is misplaced

Jófríður Ákadóttir is one third of Icelandic electronic group Samaris, who have had a meteoric rise to success since forming in 2011 and winning the Icelandic Músíktilraunir within months.

Since then, they’ve released two EPs, signed with UK label One Little Indian and released their debut, self-titled album.

Ákadóttir said self-publishing the EPs was “a very healthy lesson”.

“When you tried it out yourself in a very small scene – which Iceland is – it’s easy for you to understand it,” she said.

“It was good to put that in contrast with how it works when you’re signed to a real label.”

The trio, which includes Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir on clarinet and electronics producer Þórður Kári Steinþórsson, weaves old poetry around astral, electronic and classical sounds.

“We wanted to write our own lyrics but we hadn’t really gotten any inspiration for that,” said Ákadóttir.

“So we looked into things that were really old – old-fashioned Icelandic romantic poetry, which we love. We find it’s something that has a very strong emotional attachment to us. So we tried around with that, experimented, and it fit perfectly.

“All the words are so delicately chosen in these poems, so when you were singing them it felt they already had their own songs.”

Samaris bring their show to the Sydney festival’s Spiegeltent, and audiences can expect a dreamy and “fairy-like” show, slightly out of this world.

“I like the energy in [performing]. I feel like in my other band I try to bring the audience very close to me and sing songs that are very intimate. But with Samaris we tried to create the total opposite, which is sort of a kind of distinct world, something that is very distinct from the audience, very dreamy.”

A lot of attention is placed on the youth of the three women, something Ákadóttir said is misplaced, but positive.

“We often get considered younger than we are. I’m the only teenager and I’m 19,” she said.

“It’s good to have your own voice as part of a young generation, we can be representative in a way. People will listen to it and see that it’s not just some bullshit, it’s our ideas. If people attach that to being young then so be it.”

Samaris play the Spiegeltent in Festival Village on 16 and 17 January

Van Badham has been to meet Rob Drummond, who is performing Bullet Catch at the festival. The show looks at the life and death of a magician who died 100 years ago after undertaking the trick – and has been wondering what drives performers and audiences fascination with it.

Rob Drummond's Bullet Catch is a show that discusses, contextualises and restages one of the most infamously dangerous tricks in the stage magician's repertoire. A real gun containing a real bullet is fired at a magician, who manages to "catch" the missile before it can wreak lethal harm.

Usually, the magician takes a dive when the gun is fired – only to raise themself from the floor and produce a marked bullet from between their teeth. The feat requires impossible dexterity and agility. The "catch" is, of course, an illusion – but with a historical body count of at least 12, even that illusion requires the most focused and disciplined performance skills.

Rob Drummond admits it's the element of risk in the illusion that attracted him to both teach himself the bullet catch, and make it the subject of a show. "I thought: I'm probably only going to do one magic show in my career – so for it I chose the most dramatic, theatrical and epic trick I could. If you're only going to do it once, why bother with the linking rings?"

The show is, of course, not really about the bullet catch, but about Drummond's – and by extension, the audience’s – appetite for risk. Of course there’s risk in all kinds of everyday activity, Drummond acknowledges but "the difference in this show is I'm celebrating this risk and enjoying it. It's got an element of risk to it but it's made as safe as possible – and that's just like driving a car or catching a plane, too. I don't really see the bullet-catch show as crazy to do, because it's just embracing what's in those other real moments of risk where we've forgotten to get our adrenaline pumping."

Given the enormous popularity of circus at this year's festival, it's convenient to assume that the appeal of death-defying acts like Drummond's may lie in ghoulish anticipation of being present at the scene of an historical accident – but the performers themselves disagree. Acrobat Tom Flanagan recalls being in a show where a performer had an accident. “[The audience] are not there to see you fail. They're there to see you succeed. That's the difference."

It's a childhood desire to triumph over the impossible that motivates Drummond. "It's an urgency in me to squeeze as much as possible out of life, and not let these opportunities get away."

Helen Davidson spoke to Australian music legend Mick Harvey today, who has completed Guardian Australia's festival Q&A. You can catch him reimagining Serge Gainsbourg at Paradiso on January 19, and find his answers to our fiendish questions below. 

If we went to “most played” on your music player, who would we find?

That’s a dangerous question because my son might have been playing things. From me probably something by Nina Simone. I like that she was a unique and headstrong artist.

What do you never go on tour without?

Some smart boots.

Tell us about the performance/gig you're most proud of?

There have been so many, that’s quite difficult actually. Last Saturday night was the first gig we did of these shows, and it was actually quite a fantastic, great feeling about it. I suppose with shows you do through the years that you remember. it’s because they have a great feeling about them, and maybe it’s a bit more than you expected it to me. That’s why you remember them and it was a bit like that on Saturday night. I’ve done thousands of shows so it’s pretty hard, but that’s probably the common aspect of them, that something goes beyond your expectations of what they might be.

In the biopic of your life, who would play you?

Sean Penn. No he’s too short, hang on. OK Sean Penn (but he’s too short).

It’s 3am on a Sunday morning and you’ve just arrived home from a big night out. What do you do?

I get a nightcap and have a chat with my wife. 3am after a big night out is not abnormal for a musician.

Which book will you be rereading for the rest of your life?

Walk on the Wildside by Nelson Algren.

Who are you keeping your eye on at the festival?

I haven’t looked at the lineup yet. That’s not a good answer is it. Ken Stringfellow. I was meant to get together with him and play something. I’d be keeping an eye on that.

Helen Davidson went to Matmos' gig last night – and had a decidedly odd, but also pretty interesting evening in the company of the electronic duo. You can read her four-star review in full here, and catch the flavour from the excerpt below

The highlight performance – and I did enjoy this show, despite being slightly traumatised – was the second “premiere” piece. (The first was the toilet exploration.) The centrepiece of the arrangement was a live streamed metronome looming ominously over the stage on screen.

Schmidt and Daniel slowly built a sonic wall of sounds and beats around the heavy tick-tick-ticking, reaching a crescendo of actually gorgeous electronica. It was infectious, consuming, disjointed and destructive. It was in moments like this that the talent of the Matmos duo outdid their twisted imaginations.

The encore included a man’s naked torso accompanied by some enthusiastic balloon manipulation, mirrored on stage by Schmidt (albeit fully clothed) with his own red balloon. It was funny and a little juvenile, and again with talent hidden beneath the bizarre.

Guardian Australia photographer Anna Kucera has been out capturing the festival vibe. Here are some of her lovely images

There's an enormous amount of circus in Sydney in these two weeks. If you're a circus fan, you could not be having more fun. Van Badham's been investigating circus's enormous popularity in Australia – a mixture of great training, a changing balance of disciplines, and that once you've been to see a great show, you want to see more. You can read her full – and very interesting – piece here, but first, take a quick peek below

In Sydney this festival fortnight, the tradition of powerful circus content is as strong as ever. Kaput, Limbo and the circus cabaret Scotch and Soda are but three of many variations of circus performance on show this year. Others include Ockham’s Razor and Cucina Dell’Arte, while beyond the festival programme, Circus Oz and La Soirée are also in town.

Kaput's solo performer, clown and acrobat Tom Flanagan, sees the popularity of circus as the result, in part, of a critical mass of talented performers who’ve come through in recent years. "I definitely think there's more circus happening in Australia," he says.

The creation of the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), which offers a three-year bachelor of circus arts course, is a hothouse for new performers and companies, and there also exists an established Australian trajectory for performers out of circus school. "It's happened because of certain producers, it's happened because of fringe."

It also, perhaps, happened because of the changing international face of circus. Mikael Bres, a Chinese pole climber with Limbo, originally trained as a dancer in his native France, trying a circus course at the encouragement of a friend. "He said: ‘Do circus because you'll have the dance part and the acrobatic part, and that's a good combination because dance wants circus.’" The friend was right; in the 90s, French circus school Centre National des Arts du Cirque appointed a choreographer with a dance background as its new director and creative redirection was cross-discipline, international and profound.

Andrew Frost headed out to Parramatta Town Hall for a look at Project 28 by Roman Ondák, presented by Kaldor Public Art Projects. The exhibition, which was still being installed when we visited, comprises of three works: Measuring the Universe, in which visitors have their heights recorded on a wall; Swap which sees viewers asked to exchange something they own for something of somebody else; and Terrace – a brand new work created for the festival

We'd love to see what you're making of the festival – and you can send us your pictures and videos of Sydney Fest through a special Guardian Witness assignment. Check that out here, and enjoy reader garpat's submissions below

Jane Howard gets flirty with Limbo, the vaudevillian circus with more than a dash of sex appeal. You can read Jane's four star review here, in which she finds herself squirming in her seat but impressed by the confidence of these performers toying with their audience.

To sit in the audience of Limbo is to be flirted with, constantly. Cast members glance out at the audience with teasing smiles or little winks. On stage there is constant flirtation between the performers. Even the clowning act is a couple removing never-ending layers of clothes before sex. This is a cast that knows exactly how sexy they are, and a show that knows exactly how sexy it is.

With an air of the vaudevillian, Limbo is contemporary circus drawing on dance, music and circus influences from the last one hundred years, and bringing them together in a piece where all performers and disciplines are given time to shine. From Danik Abishev jumping in a one-armed handstand from pole to pole to pole, to the manic speed and skills of Hilton Denis’ tap-dancing, it’s a ceaseless stream of the sheer power and possibilities of the human body.

Limbo plays until 26 January. Tickets $59/79

Episode two of our Sydney Festival podcast is live! Listen to it in full here. Join Vicky Frost, Van Banham and Andrew Frost as we chat about big festival art: is it good art or fun art – and can it be both? We also hear from the Hilliard Ensemble, and discover some non-festival treats Sydney has on offer with Time Out Sydney editor Joel Meares.

You can now subscribe to Guardian Australia's culture podcast on itunes – with new episodes of festival coverage to come throughout these busy first months of the year.

Guardian Australia's Jane Howard met James Galea and Justin Willman at Sydney's Festival Village where they show her a series of special card tricks. Did they pull the wool over Jane's eyes? She's a tough crowd, that's for sure.

The two performers are in town with their show Band of Magicians, in which they are joined by Nate Staniforth and Justin Flom for an evening of tricks and one-upmanship. Catch the show at Riverside Theatre Parramatta until January 19. Tickets from $55

A fantastic piece from Jazz Twemlow here. Jazz - now aka Bearded Pigeon Guy - donned a suit and headed down to Martin Place fountain to play an extra in the Matrix movie, as part of artist Richard DeDomenici's Redux Project. DeDomenici is reshooting fram for frame, scenes from four Aussie movies. Jazz's cameo appeared in the famous 'girl in a red dress' scene. You can read all about Jazz's experience here, but first, a sneak peak

The physical act of remaking – as opposed to rewatching – the scene seems to allow for a fresh critical engagement with an iconic movie. When someone pulls out an old mobile phone to use as a prop, all the extras chuckle at its datedness. It seems odd to be holding one out in the open in 2014. Our large briefcases also seem hilarious – who lugs around that much paper anymore? Without realising, we’re effectively in period costume for a long-since-dead era that in the movie is considered to be "the peak of [our] civilisation".

In our first review for today, Guardian Australia's Vicky Frost takes a look at Post's production of Oedipus Schmoedipus at Belvoir theatre, where a revolving cast of volunteers with three hours rehearsal time join the stage with Zoë Coombs Marr and Mish Grigor to smash two thousand years of theatrical death scenes together. You can read Vicky's full two-star review, but first here's a taste of it

First there’s a gunshot. Then a poisoning. A dagger. A sword. Cutthroat razor. Lots more stabbing of various kinds. And finally something really explosive. It takes quite a lot to see off Zoë Coombs Marr and Mish Grigor. By the time the pair leave the Belvoir stage, both it and they are swimming in blood. It’s a live-action take on cartoon violence (I kept wondering when the massive one-tonne weight was going to land on one of them) – slyly funny, completely chaotic and messily exhilarating.

Some will undoubtedly find those opening minutes confronting. But to be honest, my problems with this new show – co-produced with performance collective Post – begin once the gore is cleaned up. (Very, very slowly, to opera. Which provides nice punctuation and contrast, but is rather overdone given the general heft of the play.) While this opening skit promises joyful irreverence on a grand scale, what follows fails to deliver.

Good morning and welcome to today’s Sydney Festival liveblog. Guardian Australia's roving team of reporters and reviewers are well-rested and ready for another day of action. We've got a lot of great content coming your way, but in the meantime, catch up on what you missed yesterday.

• Sydney Festival: Wednesday January 15 - as it happened
• Lee Ranaldo on recreating a storm with Hurricane Transcriptions
• Review: All That Fall
• Sydney Festival podcast: episode one
• Review: Kaput
• Pictures: Backstage at Limbo by Anna Kucera
• Andrew Frost on festival art: Is it?
• Review: Amanda Palmer
• Where to drink with Scotch and Soda
• Video: Andrew Frost climbs the walls at Merchant Store