Event Type: Live Music

Rough Skies Records

Rough Skies Records is an independent artist-run record label based in nipaluna/Hobart and is dedicated to releasing music from the region. The label’s debut ‘Community – a compilation of Hobart music’, was curated by Rough Skies’ founder Julian Teakle and released on CD and digitally via Bandcamp, in the summer of 2009. Teakle has since curated another 3 Community Compilations, all of which have served as snapshots of the local music scene and were dubbed ‘open love letters to Hobart Music’ by Vice journalist, Jennifer Park.

Over ten years and 30 releases, Rough Skies has steadily built a niche profile in Australian independent music, recognised for documenting unique underground bands from lutruwita/Tasmania. The label operates as a collaboration between two friends, Teakle and Claire Johnston, who joined in early 2018. Teakle and Johnston are currently working on several exciting new releases for the label in 2022 alongside their day jobs and individual music projects.

www.roughskiesrecords.bandcamp.com

Obon lanterns – see the installation of lanterns created in the lead up to Winter Light by community members and facilitated by Yumemi Hiraki, mirroring the practice of Japanese obon festival to commemorate and honour ancestors.

Obon dance – gather beneath the lanterns to learn the Obon dance, practiced throughout Japan as part of the Obon Festival, with Yumemi Hiraki and Eri Mulloolly-Hill Konishi.

Rhythmz Bollywood – get ready for high energy classic Bollywood dance from nipaluna (Hobart) bollywood dance institution, Rhythmz Bollywood. Workshop participants have the opportunity to perform during opening night event. (workshop dates to come)

MMT – Madi Mega Talent Hita Man and Rasta Jay of South Sudan. These energetic MC’s rip up the stage with their brand of Badman style East African Dancehall.

Miettes – A contemporary and performative journey into the musical history of France. This unique trio explore their Gallic roots and present a show full of striking sounds and sights, leaving you begging for more than just the crumbs!

Svetlana Bunic – Accordionista Svetlana Bunic presents a well-travelled cinematic repertoire of Frech musette, Argentinian tango, continental movie themes, retro melodies, gypsy grooves, smoking jazz, Latin and cabaret show tunes.

Son Del Sur – Son del Sur is an exciting 10 piece Latin-Jazz and Salsa band. Son del Sur (meaning “they are from the South”) has performed at many of Tasmania’s premier music events and has wowed audiences with their impressive sound.

Kattleya – Kattleya are an acoustic duo from Colombia featuring Latin American music with distinctive upbeat, tropical sounds and uplifting melodies. 

Salsita Kids – Salsitas is an intergenerational dance group with ancestral roots transmitting folklore stories. Salsitas explores traditions which are then performed by modern Latin Americans with a mission to rediscover their unique histories, through Latino rhythms and traditional dance.

Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie

Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and community development worker based in nipaluna/Hobart, lutruwita/Tasmania.

Her creative practice is responsive and explores belonging and cultural heritage in contemporary Australia, drawing on lived experience as an Asian-Australian woman. Representation, connection and community building are central themes which ground her curatorial practice.

PARKER

Tash Parker (PARKER)  is a multidisciplinary artist and musician born in Western Australia and raised on a tropical fruit farm in the North East Kimberley, now based in Launceston Tasmania.  Her music is a powerhouse of retro-futurist electronica that soars with glossy synths and commanding vocals.

Her artistic practice is centred around reactionary works in collaboration with musicians, visual artists and technology artists to curate multi-sensory experiences:

“I write about what is real and happening whether that be about my own relationships and experience in my body or an imagined reality of a space travelling future ancestor.” –PARKER

FFLORA (FLUID FEMME LUMINARIES OFFERING RHAPSODIC ASCENSION)
A place of musical exploration and expression, FFLORA presents a journey into group improvisation. The ever-evolving ensemble take inspiration from jazz, folk, free improv, sick beats, collisions of sounds, failures, glory, poetry and synergy. Each time the group performs together it is truly unique. Be prepared to experience uplifting, unsteady, un-conforming utters of unreal music.

エミエミ (emi emi)

エミエミ (emi emi) is the experimental J-pop project from 24-year-old Emi Doi. Born and raised in lutruwita to her Launcestonian mum and Japanese dad, エミエミ represents a new venture for Emi, combining her existing indie-music flavour with uptempo neo-kawaii-pop, drawing on inspiration from the likes of Kero Kero Bonito, CHAI, Kyary Pyamu Pyamu and Superorganism. 楽しんでください (≧▽≦)

Tash Parker

Tash Parker is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based in Launceston Tasmania. Her music released under the name PARKER is ‘a ‘a powerhouse of retro futurist electronica that absolutely soars with its glossy synths and commanding vocals.’ Her artistic practice is centred around collaboration with musicians, visual artists and technology artists to curate multi-sensory experiences for her audience. She holds a degree in Fine Arts majoring in Sonic and Spatial Practice and made the Vice Chancellor’s list at RMIT in 2016. In 2019 Tash had her first multi-media exhibition ‘You, Me & that Other Thing’ at Sawtooth Gallery in collaboration with Melbourne based drawer and sculptor Jo Lane. Her music videos have since gone on to win awards for best music video at New York Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Awards, Top Shorts and the Melbourne Short Film Festival and Clipped Music Video Festival in Sydney. In 2020 Tash received the Tasmanian Women’s Art Prize Emerging Artist award for her debut music video Can’t Keep Waiting. Tash’s songs have been added to rotation on ABC’s Double J radio station (Superhuman by PARKER) and reached number one on the AMRAP regional charts (Flames by Runaway Belles). Her last single and music video Lie Low, ‘a brave, cathartic, and above all, mystifyingly – beautiful song.’  released March 8th 2021 for International Women’s Day was premiered on Rolling Stone Australia. In 2021 Tash received an Arts Tasmania grant to present a series of music video exhibitions and performances in the second half of 2022. These exhibitions and performances will be; in Devonport at the RANT Gallery in July, in Hobart at Longhouse Gallery partnering the Winter Light Festival in August, and in Launceston partnering with Sawtooth Gallery and Junction Festival in September.

208L Containers
We sell paintings to Lars Ulrich and are rock band.

Rabbit
RABBIT is a rock and roll band with a lot of rhythmic crunch and sharp guitar hooks and they play fast. Ventolin inhaler recommended.

The Trash Vultures

The Trash Vultures are a Death Western Outlaw band, writing songs about the Wild West, cowboy decapitation, mutilation by grizzly bears and other day to day adventures. Formed in Hobart in 2019 for the Arts Hall Little Bands festival, popular demand saw the band continue on to be a permanent act. They released their debut album “Talking Trash and other songs and stories” and the single “Stupid Town” has been receiving good national airplay through the CBAA network and support from EDGE Radio Hobart

EWAH

EWAH is based in Hobart, Tasmania and is the moniker for Emma Waters, who has appeared under various guises over the years. Her current projects are dreamy electro post-punk outfit EWAH DUO and EWAH & The Vision of Paradise, whose sound is often cited as cinematic, merging post-punk and new wave.

EWAH & The Vision of Paradise’ debut release, Everything Fades to Blue captured attention nationally and internationally and was longlisted for the Australian Music Prize (The AMP) in 2017.

EWAH & The Vision of Paradise have played at festivals including Mona Foma, Party in the Paddock, A Festival Called Panama, Dark Mofo, BIGSOUND and Junction Arts Festival.

In 2017, they won the National Live Music Awards for Best Live Act Tasmania and were nominated again in 2019.

Lincoln Le Fevre
Linc is possibly one of the best songwriters to ever come out of Tassie. With three incredible LPs under his belt, he’s finally coming back home to play one of his much-adored solo sets. It’s been a while between drinks, and we can’t wait.

Meres
Meres is the brainchild of Mary Shannon, a very familiar face in the Tasmanian music scene. They’ve really sculpted a signature sound for themselves over the last couple of years, pairing beautifully written melodies with fuzzed out, alt-rock guitars. Meres has also been working on some new material, so we’re hoping to get a taste of that on the night!

Den.
Denni Sulzberger has spent the last few years honing her craft as a songwriter. She has an incredible ear for the perfect vocal melody to match her lyrics. Denni will have her trio behind her on the night, and we can’t wait to hear her amazing songs brought to life in a full band setting.

The Sleepyheads

Since forming in Launceston in 2016, The Sleepyheads have turned heads all over the country with their honest approach to heart-on-sleeve punk and indie rock. It’s that buzz-worthy style that earned The Sleepyheads a coveted Triple J Unearthed Feature Artist slot, leading to a milestone performance at Triple J’s One Night Stand in St Helens.

The band have since gone on to appear at some of Australia’s most-loved festivals, including Falls Festival, Party In the Paddock, Til The Wheels Fall Off and Woolly Mammoth. Their charismatic and engaging live shows have seen The Sleepyheads sell out multiple headline gigs, and tour nationally three times. With more new music to come and their charming brand of indie rock at the ready, The Sleepyheads are equipped to continue captivating audiences, new and old, every step of the way.

An intrepid traveller hailing from lutruwita (Tasmania), Swaz Benjamin’s storytelling, party-starting and poetics have seen him perform with artists such as Drapht, Thundamentals, Mallrat, Horrorshow, Adrian Eagle, Pez, B Wise, Maundz, Akil (Jurassic 5), Buck 65, Omar Musa, Luka Lesson and Zac Henderson.

On his first full-length release ‘Souled Out Volume One:Daze Gone Bye‘ mixtape. Swaz worked closely with producer Hugh Lake (Jessica Mauboy, Stan Walker, Split Enz) curating the sounds Hugh would work with to create the instrumentals for the album. APRA AMCOS award nominee IAMMXO (of Diafrix & Sony Australia) also mentored and oversaw much of the project. In particular, Chasm‘s remix of the title track, and lead single ‘Days‘ helped garner radio play and press across Australia & the UK. In 2018 UK Hip hop royalty Skinnyman was supported by Swaz, playing his first show in London. While in the UK, he talked through each song on the mixtape on Terra Slim‘s ‘The Shout‘ on ImInRadio.

Folk Til Ya Punk Records is a collective of artists from around Australia spearheaded by Hobart’s own The Dead Maggies. They’ve put out 17 releases to national airplay and international acclaim. They also put on events such as the annual HOBOFOPO Festival. FTYP Records will be curating an evening spanning from folk to punk, and whatever fits in between!

Glenn Richards

Glenn Richards is a multi award winning songwriter, composer, engineer and producer who has toured the world and continues to record with his band Augie March and for his own solo material. He has released eight acclaimed albums, including a platinum and two gold, and has scored, engineered and mixed three feature films, an ABC television series, a recent play for the Theatre Royal Hobart, and many shorts and webisodes. He works out of his studio, Dark Satanic Mill Studio, Hobart, Tasmania.

Silikill
Silikill is a nipaluna/Hobart based ensemble that unites an eclectic range of styles into a collaborative musical and gestural language to explore concepts and noise. They are primarily engaged with performing original compositions and free improvisations from within the group. The works themselves often stem from current personal interests, general bouts of confusion, and revelations which are tied with a sense of playfulness and lust for autonomy.

Hellgart Mahler lives near Devonport, Tasmania, but was born in Vienna. Her father, Hillel Mahler, came from a small village on the Polish-Czechoslovakian border, but his family soon moved to Vienna, then the cultural Mecca of Europe. In his grandfather’s family one older brother became the father of Gustav Mahler (who is Hellgart’s great-uncle), but her musical antecedents go right back to 16th and 17th century Italy, where the Maler family (the H was added later) were brilliant lute makers and players; sought after and vied for by dukes and princes.

Russell Gilmour was born in 1956 and received his early musical training at Guildford Grammar School, WA. Since graduating from the University of New England in the early 1980s, he has worked as a teacher, lecturer and arts administrator. Gilmour is best known for his short, quirky, humorous compositions (Dark on Bach, 2003) and sometimes melancholic, brooding work (Seven Things I’ll Do Tomorrow, 2005). His musical style has developed from a brief flirtation with neo-romanticism in the 1980s (A Peaceable Kingdom, 1985; Host Of The Air, 1984) to a more direct highly melodic style which the composer describes as ‘the art of post classical drivetime’

Don Kay

Don Kay’s musical language has its roots in the tradition of Western art music but has been significantly shaped by his experience of Tasmania’s environment and history. Kay identifies Hastings Bay (1986) as the first mature piece that was a direct, conscious response to a specific personal experience of a specific place, acknowledged by the title. Two works, amongst a number important to him for reflecting this influence, are: Tasmania Symphony – the Legend of Moinee for cello and orchestra (1988), and Piano Trio, The Edge of Remoteness (1996).

Dominic Fynn

Born in Hobart in 1997, Dominic Fynn grew up playing the drums in local bands before shifting focus to composition. Dominic’s music has been performed both locally and overseas, and he has collaborated with the Decibel New Music Ensemble, Hobart Wind Symphony, L’ Ensemble de Musique Contemporaine du Conservatoire de Musique de Rimouski, pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.  In 2021 he received a grant to compose a string quartet inspired by convict folk music, and was selected to be a part of one of Australia’s largest commissioning projects, the ANAM Set. He has studied in Australia with Don Kay, Russell Gilmour, and Maria Grenfell, and in the United Kingdom with Michael Finnissy.

Ensemble Mania was created with the goal to provide a unique listening experience in Tasmania, showcasing music that would otherwise not be heard on the island, while exemplifying the possibilities of a richer, more diverse music scene. This music includes the latest, most exciting composers, to the pillars of Australian modernism and lost masterpieces.

Peter Tanfield
Born in England in 1961, Peter Tanfield started the violin aged four. He studied in Germany, Israel, Switzerland and Holland where his teachers were Igor Ozim, Felix Andrievski, Alberto Lysy, Herman Krebbers and Yehudi Menuhin. As soloist and chamber musician Tanfield has performed throughout Europe, China, Japan, India, Canada, the Middle East, Africa, USA and USSR. He was a prize-winner at The Carl Flesh International Competition, International Mozart Competition and International Bach Competition. He has recorded solo and chamber works for television and radio as well as CD. He has played for Chairman Deng Xiaoping in China and the Sultan of Oman. Tanfield led the Australian String Quartet from 1998 until 2001. As a soloist Tanfield has appeared with many orchestras; the Philharmonia, City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Rome. As concertmaster he has worked with the BBC Philharmonic, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has performed with Astor Piazolla, Charlie Watts, Pinchas Zukerman, Yehudi Menuhin, Charles Wuorinen, Arvo Pärt, Graeme Koehne, Gary Carr, Carlo Maria Giulini, Mark Gasser and Itzhak Perlman.

Joshua Farner is from Hobart, Tasmania, and began playing the violin at the age of nine. Following completion of a Bachelor of Engineering with 1st class Honours, he was awarded a University of Tasmania String Scholarship and commenced a Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Dr. Susan Collins. Josh has performed with the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra and the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute (AISOI), and regularly performs as section leader and concertino player with the Hobart Chamber Orchestra. In 2018 Josh was awarded the D & MV McDonald Scholarship in Music from the University of Tasmania, allowing him to travel to London to study under renowned pedagogues Simon Fischer and David Takeno.

Damien Holloway studied viola in Hobart with Keith Crellin, Simon Oswell and Jan Sedivka, followed by postgraduate studies in Brisbane with Elizabeth Morgan. He played viola with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and was a founding member of Camerata of St Johns (Brisbane). He is principal viola of the Hobart Chamber Orchestra, and regularly fosters the performance of new music

James Anderson is currently studying a Master of Teaching at the University of Tasmania, having completed his Bachelor of Music in 2018 studying under Sue-Ellen Paulsen. James has previously performed in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute, the Jan Sedivka Camerata, and the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra. In 2018 James worked with the ensemble Musik Fabrik in Cologne, while also spending time at the Royal Conservatory of Den Hague in the Netherlands.