we need other people 🫶🏼
Making music on your own can be pretty lonely. Most of the time, I dig it. But sometimes I miss my old days of having bandmates to bounce ideas off. To inspire each other.
That’s maybe why last Friday night’s gig at Peninsula Hot Springs with Rhys Newling felt so. damn. good. In fact, it might have been my favourite IKSRE gig ever.
Getting to play four tunes off the two ‘expansion’ albums, while a double rainbow materialized above us. Not to mention that sunset. And I got to do a Radiohead cover.
It was pretty spesh.
But the magic about this gig, was in the collaboration. Another person, on stage with me.
Sometimes I find solo shows hard as I wonder if what I do is interesting enough to look at. I’m “doing a tightrope show – one false move and it all goes to hell” (as someone once told me) – so it’s hard to engage with the audience as much as I’d like. I’m way too busy doing all. of. the. things.
So working with a visual artist like Rhys is so special. I can just focus on what I’m doing, pulling occasional shapes as a mysterious silhouette behind a screen, while he weaves his mesmerising visual magic for to bliss out to. And we get to do it together.
2026 New Years Resolution: more of this.
expansion b (north) has been out in full for a few weeks on Bandcamp, but will be streaming in all of the places on 6 Jan. And bell gorge (and we were the last ones there) is now streaming everywhere.
Thank you so much for listening. And sharing. And sharing with me too. I was pretty apprehensive about self releasing these albums (again – doing all of the things, on your own, is hard sometimes). My inner critic told me not to, over and over again.
But man, am I glad I managed to drown out that voice. Friends egging me on helped too. This way, I released these albums exactly how I wanted to. when I wanted to. And all the messages I got from you guys, came directly to me.
Massive love to Passing Notes and The Modernist on PBS; Vital Bits on RRR for recent spins; to Ban Ban Ton Ton for the lovely write up:
“her mediative compositions, and live improvisations, never fail to speak to me. Sometimes summoning landscapes, sometimes memories. At others, simply instantly instilling a designed / desired state of peace and calm.”
To Shawn Reynaldo for the feature in First Floor
To Stationary Travels who included the albums as part of their 2025 in review “a sense of place and time” calling them “lush ambient and experimental music mingled with field recordings and ethereal vocals” (full article here).
And Ultima Thule on 2MBS Sydney is featuring both albums in full on 1 January. You can stream the show here.
xx
I hope these last days of 2025 are good to each and every one of you and that 2026 is kind to you and your loved ones. Thank you for listening, and can’t wait to write (and share) more in 2026.
