The Crooked Fiddle Band have built a reputation as one of Australia’s most intense live music experiences. Delivering high-octane future-folk, this Sydney-based violin-led quartet twists trad folk and progressive influences into intense cinematic soundscapes with medieval battle-axe climaxes, transforming dance floors into post-apocalyptic hoe-downs. Following three tours to Europe/UK, the band recorded their second epic album “Moving Pieces of the Sea” in Chicago with Steve Albini (Nirvana, The Pixies, Gogol Bordello, Jonanna Newsom).
“Mind-blowing, face-melting, jaw-dropping, head-spinning.” ~ The Music
“When The Crooked Fiddle Band took to the stage, it was as though someone had put 10,000 volts through the dance floor.” ~ BEAT
“…completely surprising. The music is original and quixotic, and yet has the strength of some deep and strong roots. I can’t say I’ve ever heard anything else like it!.” ~ Brian Eno
Don McGlashan (The Mutton Birds, The Front Lawn) is one of NZ’s foremost songwriters. He delivers his songs – extraordinary tales of ordinary lives – with vulnerability, grace and hope, conjuring transcendent moments, navigating us through breath-taking beauty, the dark and the deep. He has worked with Paul Kelly, Crowded House, Johnny Marr, Wilco and members of Radiohead; scored many feature films including Jane Campion’s “An Angel At My Table”, received two Silver Scroll awards and five of his compositions are in APRA’s “100 Best NZ Songs of All Time”.
His acclaimed new album “Lucky Stars” is a rich collection of highly personal songs exploring love, regret and mortality, infused with optimism and a deep joy.
“A masterclass in song craft… with an inner world all his own.”
★★★★½ ~ Rolling Stone.
“Poetic honesty… shared with compassion. Quite exceptional.”
★★★★ ~ Stack
“No one else gets close to writing songs like that, and making them work.”
~ Metro Mag
“An absolute pleasure.” ★★★★½ ~ SMH / The Age
Inquisitive, playful and imaginative, this acclaimed Danish 5-piece takes an anarchic approach to traditional musical structures. Winners of Danish Music Awards for “Best World Album of the Year” and “Contemporary Folk Artist”, Afenginn has built up a world wide reputation for their virtuosity and dynamic live shows fuelled by great joy and seeking to cross borders and push limits. Formed in Copenhagen in 2002, the ensemble festures mandolin, clarinets, drums, bass and violin, with compositions ranging from the lyrical and cinematic to charismatic and wild dance tunes, always maintainging a rhythmic and melodic finesse which is distinctively Afenginn. Winners of Danish Music Awards for “Best World Album of the Year” and “Contemporary Folk Artist”, Afenginn made their first appearance in Australia in early 2014, holding audiences of all ages in the palms of their hands, receiving standing ovations wherever they went.
Winners of the BBC Folk Award for “Best Duo”, Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin combine hauntingly beautiful vocal harmonies, astonishing instrumental virtuosity with genre-bending material telling tales of myth, history and legend.
Hailing from Lancashire, Phillip Henry is one of the UK’s best dobro and harmonica players. Having immersed himself in the music of the British Isles, America’s deep south and Indian classical music he specialises in lap slide techniques, drawing together these diverse influences to create a unique and captivating voice. His innovative harmonica style combines country blues with beat-boxing.
Hannah Martin is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Devon. Writing on fiddle, viola and banjo, her songs weave folklore and legends around beautiful melodies and haunting harmonies .
“Subtle, atmospheric and bravely original.” ~ The Guardian (UK)
This Czech duo is a two person dance party. Quirky and mysterious, their music is a fantastical collage of pop, kitchen beat box, tango, circus, electronica and radio noise, wrapped around lyrics written in their own imaginary language. Their new album Nipomo won “2015 Album of the Year” at the Vinyl Music Awards. Operating in a creative microcosm, DVA have forged their very own idiosyncratic sonic lexicon – “pop for non-existing radios” or “folklore of non-existing nations”. In Czech, it takes two “dva” to tango – Bára Kratochvílová and Jan Kratochvíl, have carved out a niche with their rich sonic landscape.
“Absolutely amazing blend of off kilter electronics, homemade percussion and traditional instrumentation. Wow!” : BBC.
JUNO and four-time Canadian Folk Music Award winners Kerri Ough, Sue Passmore and Caroline Brooks are each immensely talented vocalists and songwriters in their own right. Together, their interwoven voices create powerful and pure, organic and inspiring harmonies that elevates the Good Lovelies from impressive to peerless. Over the course of more than a decade they have recorded eight albums and charmed audiences across the globe with their vocal harmonies, winsome song-writing and comedic banter. Touring their new album “SHAPESHIFTERS”.
