Essential Tremors - Liars x New Weird Australia
New compilation out now, celebrating a 3-day festival at Sydney's Phoenix Central Park
Some time ago, I started talking with Angus Andrew from Liars about working together on a project; and the fruits of that discussion are now fully in bloom.
Available now to stream and download, the New Weird Australia, Essential Tremors compilation celebrates a new three-day festival of outsider artists, curated by Angus, and staged at Phoenix Central Park in Sydney.
Angus has pulled together a stellar lineup of artists including Cindy Chen, Chunyin, Clare Cooper, Del Lumanta, ∑GG√E|N, Salllvage, Shoeb Ahmad, Wytchings and YL Hooi. The festival runs across three sessions on 11-13 March, and best of all, the whole shebang is free. Zero. Zilch. Nada. No dollars. And to keep things fair and tidy, there’s a ballot for those free tickets, which is open right now at tickets.phoenixcentralpark.com.au.
Here’s what Angus has to say about it:
"Working as an experimental musician in Australia is a particularly daunting career path. It’s an inherently difficult practice to develop because it is not about hooks or prowess and cannot be easily performed at a pub or RSL. Yet these artists are amongst our most brave and most visionary. They question traditional boundaries of form, pushing the listener to explore uncharted spaces whilst searching for meaning in the abstract. I’ve conceived 'Essential Tremors' as a celebration of those artists who doggedly persevere in developing their passion without the acknowledgement often lent to more graspable creators."
The 9-track New Weird Australia, Essential Tremors compilation is now available as a free stream / download via Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Check out the artwork below by Clemens Habicht.
While working with Angus and Phoenix on this compilation, I also discovered that curating multiple compilations at once is actually very efficient. Who knew? So, it looks like New Weird Australia, Essential Tremors will be the first of three compilations landing this year.
And so, as a thanks for making it this far in the newsletter, I’m stoked to tell that the next New Weird Australia compilation is only a few weeks away. Pitched to artists as “a cathartic burst, a riotous exclamation, a primal scream”, I encouraged them to “keep it feral and freaksome” - and I can’t wait for you to hear the results.
Until then, stay safe and fly the freak flag high.
Stu x