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On a stage barely big enough to fit all of its drums, gongs, bongos, bells, xylophone and twin marimbas, Australia's premiere ensemble Synergy Percussion Quartet made its U.S. debut Monday night at Tucson's intimate Leo Rich Theatre.

It came on Day 2 of the 15th annual Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, and it provided most in the audience with their first taste of Australian contemporary music.

Arizona Friends of Chamber Music pulled some heavy strings to get the group here for the Friends' acclaimed gathering of some of the world's finest chamber artists. There were visas to finagle, financing to secure and interest to generate from an audience clueless about what to expect.

If you let your adventurous spirit guide you, the reward was a rich, varied and unique evening of music that can easily be compared to New Age — aesthetically pleasing and sonically enjoyable in a sit-back-and-relax sort of way. No crashing cymbals or mad fits of drumming rage. But there was some banging on pots — at least those flat steel-ish discs that Bree van Reyk played looked like iron pots.

We also got to hear the didgeridoo — for many of us a first — performed by one of the world's pre-eminent players, Australian William Barton. It is a wind instrument of indigenous Australians shaped like a very long, fat, hallow wooden cane. You produce sound by blowing into it and the body of air vibrates to create a tone that echoes and coos. Depending on how hard the player blows and the tempo, it can sound like a gentle breeze or trees rustling.

During the opening piece, Nigel Westlake's "Omphalo Centric Lecture," Barton created a sound closely resembling electronica.

Synergy's two-hour concert featured all-Australian works, including one from Synergy member Timothy Constable and two composed by founding member Michael Askill, a prolific percussionist and composer Down Under. His first piece on the program, "Outward Spiral," is based on the Fibonacci numbers series — after two starting values, each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. (Start with 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 — you get it?) It can go on ad infinitum, Askill warned, but, he added, his composition wouldn't.

The piece started off with short drum and vibraphone rhythms that grew longer and faster. If you were a mathematician, you might have been able to keep a flow chart of the Fibonacci; if you were like most of us, you just enjoyed it for its developing rhythmic pattern and emerging harmonies.

Synergy borrowed its marimbas, vibraphone and some of the bigger drums from the University of Arizona's percussion department. The bulk of the less bulky instruments it brought from home, including Chinese gongs and Himalayan singing bowls used in its original composition, "A Clear Midnight." This piece was perhaps the most interesting for the audience, many of whom leaned forward in their seats to get a closer look as Askill, van Reyk and Constable rubbed wooden-wrapped mallets around the rims of various-shaped bronze bowls.

The bowls created multiple harmonic overtones — at times it sounded like a screech, or a throbbing warble or an electronica echo. Every once in a while, someone would strike the bowl to create a warm bell tone.

Quartet member Alison Pratt sat out the number, reserving her energy for her solo on Martin Wesley Smith's "Marimba and Tape." The piece can best be described as Australia's version of computerized art music. Pratt played a marimba as a duet with a sampled version of the instrument on a computerized recording. She impressed with her energy and technical skills and her ability to be the perfect duo partner to a recording.

Other highlights of the evening included Constable singing during "Omphalo" and Askill's "Salome's Entrance." He has a wonderfully smooth, unfailing voice matched by his energetic percussion skills.

Monday's concert was a bonus for the festival. The weeklong event usually has no concert on Monday, but Synergy volunteered to perform. Their generosity was rewarded with a nearly full house (450 people almost filled the Leo Rich) and a standing ovation.

The Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival continues through Sunday.