Festival season is now in full swing, and while Sydney bounces on Jeremy Deller's inflatable Stonehenge, I'm down in Hobart, Tasmania, where the five-day festival Mofo is getting into its stride. Its full name is Mona Foma – the Museum of Old and New Art's Festival of Music and Art. The Museum of Old and New Art, of course, is the eccentric gallery built by and housing the collection of David Walsh, a great interview with whom you can read here.

The festival has been curated by Brian Ritchie, formerly bassist with the Violent Femmes – an imposing figure in torn grey jeans and Dame Edna shades – and Mona curators Nicole Durling and Olivier Varenne, and takes place across several venues in the city. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing Conrad Shawcross's robot installation, the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Orb (who I last saw playing the Leeds Warehouse in 1990 – hope they still do Little Fluffy Clouds), and John Grant, who has just released this very powerful video to Glacier, kind of a potted history of the struggle for gay rights in America.

There's also Faux Mo (puns seem big here) which is the after-hours event which the bumf describes as "Bacchananlian nightclub mayhem". I'm always up for a bit of that so will check it out tonight.

Last night I saw the German organist Ansgar Wallenhorst play in a packed-out St David's cathedral. The audience ranged from classical music buffs to the wriggling 11-year-old sat next to me. Wallenhorst kicked off the gig by reminding us that, at the time it was invented, the organ was "the most advanced technology on the planet", and then announced that he would play two pieces; Grand Piece Symphonique by César Franck (1863) and then a self-composed symphonic improvisation called The Sea which, he said was inspired by the ocean around Tasmania. It would be in four movements – one about the power of the waves, one about the joy of the sea, one meditating on the colour blue, and one pertaining to the energy of summer holidays.

This isn't the Mofo performance (or the piece in question) but gives a flavour of what he does.

It has to be said that my knowledge of organ music is pretty minimal, but the two pieces Wallenhorst played were accessible to novices. The Franck had a beautiful recurring theme in the symphonic style which gave the piece an emotional core, and ranged from the whimsical to the imposing.

The second, improvised piece was inevitably much less conventional, but keeping the sea in mind helped it to make sense. Starting off with a low pulse which sounded like God moving over the face of the waters at the beginning of the book of Genesis, Wallenhorst took the organ through sparkling high passages, moody chords and at one point, something that seemed to nod to the theme from Jaws. It was exhilarating stuff.

This morning provided another new experience. Billed as Morning Meditations, taking place at 9am in Hobart's circular Baha'i Centre, it saw young Melbourne musician Tilman Robinson play an hour-long ambient soundscape created by his laptop and a grand piano. He also had a trombone (his primary instrument, he told me after the gig), but after picking it up and putting it down a few times, seemed to decide against actually playing it.

I've often found that ambient music is best enjoyed in a group – I tend to tune it out if I have it on at home, though Robinson told me that he enjoys lying in bed and listening to it for hours – new music from Canada and Iceland (apparently, ambient hotspots) and also the inevitable classics like Brian Eno.

Though Robinson told the audience - some of whom were reclining full length on specially provided cushions – that he wouldn't mind if they fell asleep or even left during his piece, no-one did. Even the children there seemed pretty rapt. Moving from a synthesizer drone to a soothing piano chords, and culminating in a stately tune played over a gently dancey synth pulse, there was something very human and warm about it.

Robinson is certainly versatile. He has a nine-piece ensemble called Network of Lines, and had a recent gig arranging Shane Warne: the Musical for an orchestra. Here's a solo number.

Next on my agenda is to see Melanie Herbert's sound installation at Contemporary Art Tasmania, Mick Harvey doing Serge Gainsbourg, Sun Ra Arkestra and then some Faux Mo action. Do tweet me if you're around, or have tips – I am @alexneedham74 – or please leave a comment below.

• This article was amended on 17 January 2014; Mofo is in its sixth, not third year.