Nick Atkinson: Enter a galaxy that's a heaving pile of good times

Chris Cudby's Power Nap is likely to be a lot of fun.

Chris Cudby is a playful and mischievous performer. The first time I saw his last act, Golden Axe, I was surprised to see a pair of grown men going deep inside a pale construction that looked like a papier mache igloo lined with a robotic interior.

Most of the audience could barely see what was going on inside, but it certainly looked like a pile of fun. The igloo pulsed with smoke and flashing lights.

Its internal organs were ranks of endangered antique synthesisers coupled to a range of weird music-making machines.

The whole heaving construction was lined with tinsel and foil that served to reflect the crazed occupants madly gyrating as they played their hyperactive dance melodies.

Sadly, all of a sudden half of Golden Axe moved to Wellington and now Chris Cudby's solo project, Power Nap, is his focus.

"Power Nap was supposed to be a laptop project, but then my laptop broke," Cudby says.

"A laptop is like an electric guitar, that you can also hang out with your friends on," he reflects, before becoming almost misty-eyed talking about another local electronic act, Eyeliner.

"He just hits the space bar and sits back ... maybe has a coffee.

"It's a sincere use of technology. I've seen artists bring the house down with a laptop - and sometimes it can be terrible.

"We've got this residual idea that we're lazy using laptops, but for younger kids it's just a given."

Cudby has survived without his slim grey box for a year and he'll be playing his latest set completely live tonight at The Audio Foundation on Poynton Terrace, at the top of Myers Park in Auckland.

This ambitious institution is now run by Jeff Henderson, a man known for his gale-force baritone sax solos. Henderson took over from founder Zoe Drayton last year and since then has been pouring energy into the humble concrete building that's rebated into a steep slope below the street, but above the park.

The intimate room in which these unconventional musicians perform has had much care lavished upon it.

"It's getting more and more like sitting in a galaxy," says Cudby of the experience of seeing a show at The Audio Foundation.

As well as a busy programme of live contemporary art music, the other rooms within the venue host 11 exhibitions a year and it's Chris Cudby's workplace as the arts administration manager.

"I really enjoy our monthly exhibitions - we get a brand new environment which is really nice," says Cudby, who is thrilled to be working alongside Henderson.

"He's such a virtuoso and I'm a complete caveman," he says, selling himself a little short.

Cudby goes on to describe the other acts on the bill tonight.

They include Waterfalls, the gently hypnotic solo project from Wellingtonian Amber Johnson.

"All of these artists are exploring the periphery of their own genres."

Cudby will be exploring the recesses of his crammed wardrobe as he hunts down his favourite silver wig especially for tonight's show that starts at 8pm.