Vale Ollie Olsen, an innovative electronic artist who painted with sound

The endlessly curious musical pioneer Ollie Olsen died this week aged 66.
Ollie Olsen, seen here in a 1991 publicity image for his electronic music project Third Eye.

Pioneering post-punk and electronic musician, DJ, sound designer and producer Ollie Olsen died on Wednesday (16 October) after losing his battle with the rare neurological condition, multiple system atrophy. He was 66.

Olsen, an eclectic, talented, collaborative and much-admired artist, “fought long and hard like the Viking he was against multiple system atrophy since 2019 when he first began to have symptoms,” according to a post shared on his Instagram page this week.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts