The Melbourne Festival 2014 lineup has been revealed with the annual celebration of the city’s arts and culture confirming an impressive music lineup featuring everything from influential international composers to Australia’s latest and greatest.
Taking place from the 10th to the 26th October, the two-and-a-half week long program will host over 20 unique artists, with the lion’s share of musical performances once again taking place at the Foxtel Festival Hub, returning this year with a unique new pop-up location, allowing patrons to feast, drink, and frolic late into the night after the music has subsided.
Among the artists performing the Foxtel Festival Hub will be internationals such as Canadian hip hop iconoclast Buck 65; lush German piano player and sonic innovator Nils Frahm; New Orleans Depression-era blues and jazz phenomenon Tuba Skinny; Alt-country visionary (and ex-Lift To Experience frontman) Josh T Pearson, and award-winning Taiwanese ensemble A Moving Sound.
On the Australian front, others locked in for the Foxtel Festival Hub are the ever-electric funk n’ soul ensemble The Bamboos; the legendary sonic architect behind The Saints and Laughing Clowns, Ed Kuepper; Gypsy and Western rock gunslinger, Mikelangelo, and Aussie hip hop masthead Urthboy presenting his inventive Make Me A Mixtape show, weaving together unique musical tales with a roster of special guest stars.
Other exotic and eclectic highlights of the Melbourne Festival 2014 includes a performance from 19-time Grammy-winning guitarist and jazz icon, Pat Metheny, playing with his titular Pat Metheny Unity Group (at Hamer Hall) and a top-tier double bill featuring US jazz-funk futurists Snarky Puppy and the Irish 11-piece group, Kormac’s Big Band.
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Also leading the Melbourne Festival 2014 lineup is a number of Australian debuts, including Irish-American Celt supergroup The Gloaming, Light From the Outside World, a 90-min genre-spanning collaboration between influential DJ and producer Jeff Mills and the 60-piece Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Down Under debut of UK film composer Clint Mansell.
Best known for his evocative work scoring each of Darren Aronofsky’s movies (from Pi to Requiem For A Dream to Black Swan) as well as his collaborations with Trent Reznor, Mogwai, Kronos Quartet, and Patti Smith, Mansell will perform a headline concert with a 9-piece band, as well as taking part in the Festival Hub’s Artists In Conversation program.
As Melbourne Festival’s Director of Contemporary Music, Declan Forde, also points out, “Melbourne has a deep and rich musical heritage that has long been renowned all over the world, and we’re delighted to celebrate this with some legacy shows like Pop Crimes, celebrating the music of Rowland S. Howard, and Since I Left You which pays homage to The Avalanches’ classic album.”
The former is a fitting live commemoration to the songs of Rowland S. Howard, whose songbook included work with The Birthday Party, Crime & The City Solution, and These Immortal Souls before his death in 2009. The show will feature Aussie heroes and Howland’s former bandmates alike, including Adalita, Mick Harvey, Ed Kuepper, Hugo Race, Harry Howard, and more.
Melbourne will also get to experience the celebration of The Avalanches’ landmark Since I Left You co-ordinated by Sydney-via-South Africa beatmaker Jonti, who has toured his live tribute to the iconic 2000 album (with the help of a rotating ensemble) to select festivals around the country.
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Rounding out the Melbourne Festival 2014 lineup is Greek star Mihalis Hatzi teaming up with the MSO, and The Murru concert, a musical tribute to John Pat – a 16-year-old Yindjibarndi man who died in a Roebourne police cell over 30 years ago, featuring the talents of Archie Roach, Emma Donovan, John Bennett, Harry Hooky, and more lighting up Federation Square.
Tickets for Melbourne Festival 2014 start from $25 and go on sale 9am, Tuesday 29th July from the Melbourne Festival 2014 website.
Melbourne Festival 2014 Lineup
A Moving Sound (Taiwan)
Buck 65 (Can)
Clint Mansell (UK)
Ed Kuepper
Jeff Mills (USA)
Josh T. Pearson (USA)
Mihalis Hatzigiannis (Greece)
Mikelangelo
Murru: 10 Songs of Freedom for John Pat feat. Archie Roach, Emma Donovan, John Bennett, and Harry Hooky.
Nils Frahm (Germany)
Pat Metheny Unity Group (USA)
Pop Crimes: The Songs of Rowland S. Howard feat. Adalita, Mick Harvey, Ed Kuepper, Hugo Race, Harry Howard, & more
Since I Left You: A Celebration of The Avalanches feat. Jonti, Rainbow Chan, Polographia, Astral People, & more
Snarky Puppy (USA) & Kormac’s Big Band (Ire)
The Bamboos
The Gloaming (Ire/USA)
Tuba Skinny (USA)
Urthboy: Make Me A Mixtape
Melbourne Festival 2014 Dates, Tickets
10th – 26th October, 2014
Tickets available from 9am, Tuesday 29th July.
More info and details at: http://www.melbournefestival.com.au/
