Singing the Aphrodite myth, and a new take on golden age of Persian contemporary music
Growing up in Iran, Ashkan Shafiei would listen to 'forbidden music' on cassette tapes—songs recorded before the revolution, or by Iranian artists living overseas. Ashkan plays the rubab, a plucked-string instrument popular in Afghanistan, but rarely heard in Iran despite having an ancient history there. Now living in Australia, Ashkan's own music blends 'forbidden music' influences with traditional Persian music and his love of jazz and funk. His new EP Hunter was developed as part of the Artist Accelerator Program by Music in Exile — an initiative supporting artists from non-English language backgrounds to launch music careers in Australia. Is it Aphrodite’s fault that the beauty industry has never been more powerful? That’s the question that Aphrodite, a new work by American composer Nico Muhly and Australian playwright Laura Lethlean, asks in its world premiere by Sydney Chamber Opera. Starring Sydney Chamber Opera stalwart Jessica O’Donoghue, and Puerto Rican soprano Meechot Marrero in her Australian debut, it’s an exploration of beauty and pleasure underscored by Omega Ensemble. Jess, Meechot and SCO Artistic Director Jack Symonds join Andy to give a sneak preview of the work.We say farewell to Terry Harper who is retiring after 49 years tuning the pianos in the ABC studios in Sydney. His work has been heard on thousands of recordings and live performances across Radio National, Jazz, Classic, local radio and more. We’ll hear from Terry about the two essential skills that every piano tuner must have.Plus, a track to remember Sly Stone who died this week at 82.
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John Luther Adams on earth
John Luther Adams describes himself, tentatively, as an “elemental extremist”. New Yorker music critic Alex Ross describes him as “one of the most original musical thinkers of the 20th century”. Deeply attuned to the natural world, particularly his adopted home of Alaska, Adams’ music has confronted the climate change, anger, and grief since the 1970s. He might be best known for his trio of Become works, one of which, Become Ocean, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2014. Despite his love of extremes, he’s found himself residing in Canberra where Andy spoke to him about his career, his landscapes, and what’s brought him to our nation’s fair capital.
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The birth of House, and the rebirth of Lucius
“Chicago is a case study”, says one of the witnesses to the birth of House music in the new film, Move Ya Body. In the 1980s Chicago was in the throes of segregation and violence, and its warehouses became the site of a new kind of dancefloor as the disco era faded away. At the epicentre was music producer Vince Lawrence, who joins Andy with Move Ya Body director Elegance Bratton to describe the creation and the Utopian aspirations of House. Move Ya Body: The Birth of House is at Sydney Film Festival 8th and 10th of JuneHolly Laessig and Jess Wolfe are the dual lead singers of the band Lucius. Between them, they have three voices: Holly’s, Jess’s, and a third voice, a sort of Holly-and-Jess chimera that rises up out of their voices together. Their self-titled album Lucius has just been released, and Holly and Jess tell Andy about why it was time to return to a familiar sound, and to finally name an album after the band.
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Gender euphoria and jazz with Elliot Lamb and entering the forest house with Jenny Mitchell
Jenny Mitchell recorded her fourth and latest album at a sprawling rural property in Wairarapa, a town in Aotearoa’s North Island. Forest House captures the sounds (figurative and literal) of the landscape, along with the playfulness and musicality of her band. Jenny is currently on tour with Kasey Chambers, before launching her own album in July. She joins Andy to reflect on a decade in music (she released her first album at 15) and how she builds her lush songs that meander from folk to country and beyond.Trombonist, composer and bandleader Elliot Lamb’s new album In My Own Little World captures small and joyful moments of gender euphoria—tracks like 5 O’Clock Shadow describe shaving for the first time, and Alone... is about finding their trans and non-binary community. Elliot is on The Music Show to talk about the palette available to them when writing for an octet, and how their other musical projects - a trio and a big orchestra - stretch their musical chops in different ways.
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Bush Gothic on the fine line between pleasure and pain, and director Netia Jones on Purcell's wild semi-opera The Fairy Queen
Bush Gothic are “unafraid of Australian songs”. From colonial-era folk songs to the Divinyls, their latest album What Pop People Folk This Popular is a showcase of what the band does best: dreamy, detailed, genre-bending music in conversation with Australian musical history. Jenny M Thomas and Dan Witton join Andy. Netia Jones is an English opera director and she’s in Sydney to take on Henry Purcell’s odd but beautiful “Restoration Spectacular” The Fairy Queen for Pinchgut Opera. Under rain on a tin roof of the rehearsal room, she and Andy sit to talk about the peculiarities of the piece, and of English language opera.
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