NOVEMBER 4, 2015

2016 CONTEMPORARY MUSIC PROGRAM @ CHEVRON FESTIVAL GARDENS Elizabeth Quay lights up for 25 nights of live beats and sumptuous eats as we open the new Festival hub and our city bursts into life.

A celebration of art, architecture and entertainment, the all new Chevron Festival Gardens is an exciting venture for Perth - a place to meet artists, catch up with friends or dance the night away.

A dynamic line-up of artists from Australia and all over the world form a Contemporary Music program that will light up The Mainstage with jazz, world music, rock, pop, folk and gospel, while the garden setting provides a place to sit back, relax and enjoy international food made from locally sourced produce.

Chevron Australia Managing Director Roy Krzywosinski said the Chevron Festival Gardens’ new home at Elizabeth Quay would position the venue at the heart of both the Festival and the city.

“Like the Festival, Chevron is committed to the long-term growth and prosperity of Western Australia. Together, our investment in this exciting new venue will bring human energy and international creative excellence to the people of Perth,” he said.

Perth International Arts Festival Artistic Director Wendy Martin said the 2016 Contemporary Music program had been carefully curated to include an eclectic mix of genres from folk to indie, electronica to rap, and engage with people from 18 to 80. “We have cherry picked artists from around the world to create a program of discovery, great depth and diversity,” Wendy said. “This a music lovers’ program that provides the opportunity to see artists you wouldn’t normally see other than at Festival time.” The 2016 Contemporary Music line up includes two very special performances: Five years since they last performed together, all five remaining members of Perth outfit The Triffids will take to the stage with carefully selected special guest vocalists to celebrate the life of David McComb and the legacy of an adored Australian band. A storyteller of Aboriginal and Irish heritage, Kev Carmody is best known for 1991’s politically-charged anthem, written with Paul Kelly, From Little Things Big Things Grow. His special Festival appearance also features a screening of Brendan Fletcher’s Songman, a documentary exploring Carmody’s unique philosophy on music and recording, making this a truly memorable night.

For the first time in the Contemporary Music Program, audiences will also be able to engage with artists through PIAF Connect, which will give volunteer singers from Perth the chance to join House Gospel Choir on stage at the Chevron Festival Gardens. Performing house hits in true gospel

choir style over two nights, House Gospel Choir bring together outstanding voices and musicians and take them to a place where spirituality and euphoria meet. Opening the Gardens on Festival eve, British DJ Nightmares on Wax will satisfy post-rave desires for a sound fusing hip-hop breakbeats with low-end, brooding electro and music that oozes a sunny Balearic vibe and classic soul lushness. The following night, Grammy Award winner José González’s poetic lyrics and mastery of the classical guitar combine to make a package as soothing as an iced drink on a hot summer’s day. Now, with their seventh studio album Saudade, D.C.-based Thievery Corporation's Eric Hilton and Rob Garza present their first release devoted entirely to bossa nova, the Brazilian-born genre that first connected them, and bring to Perth an epic (full-band) live show, while William Fitzsimmons’ unassuming stage presence, incredible acoustic guitar skills and eagerness to tell stories between songs will make his live show engaging and unique. Taking a wailing angst from her roots in lo-fi acoustic recordings, Katie Crutchfield – better known as Waxahatchee – is a commanding vocalist with a rocking sound that’s equal parts measured and maelstrom. Teaming up with a backing band of trusted friends and collaborators, you can be guaranteed a live set that’s as breathless as it is breathtaking. Founded by charismatic London DJ Barry Ashworth, UK export the Dub Pistols have infectious rhythms and a breezy swagger down to a fine art. No band maintains a rabid following for over 15 years unless they can lay claim to something truly special, and the return of Ashworth and his crew to Australian shores is your chance to find out exactly why they’re one such act. As a quartet, Band of Brothers – comprising ARIA award-winning guitarist Slava Grigoryan, his equally gifted brother Leonard and the extraordinarily talented Joseph and James Tawadros – utilise a repertoire crossing countless cultural and stylistic lines, from jazz to world, classical to traditional. Together, they will take you on a captivating musical journey. José James, while keeping his trademark soulful baritone at the forefront, adeptly weaves elements of indie rock, folk, funk, blues, hip-hop and R&B into an experience journeying from desire to introspection and spiritual epiphany.

A Balkan rock star, Goran Bregović is set to light up the stage at the Chevron Festival Gardens, delivering the frantic and exhilarating energy of gypsy jazz like no other. An accomplished film composer and an eclectic collaborator, you can rely on Bregović to present music that refuses to be calm and never conforms to any one label. Multi-disciplined artist Jon Tarry, in association with creative director of the Australian Art Orchestra Peter Knight,

distinguished visual artist and musician Cameron Robbins and special guest vocalist/songwriter Esther Maria, from Denmark, will also join forces for a special premiere event. Dark Mirror White Noise will be a perfectly transitional evening by the Swan River resonant with the installation by Tarry on exhibition as a part of Face to Face at the John Curtin Gallery.

British outfit Leftfield have always been about the tension between weight and weightless, between intensity and calm, between pressure and release. 20 years after Mercury nominated Leftism, 16 after that album's Number One charting follow-up and five after reviving the name for a series of live shows, Leftfield are back to the very centre of modern electronic music. Cult Australian all-improv trio The Necks live shows have been described as religious experiences. Celebrated for creating immersive sets with sensitivity, intelligence and stamina, blending jazz, ambient and avant-garde, their music gradually changes as the narrative fades and drifts – and no two shows are ever the same. They are joined by Volker Bertelmann, alias Hauschka, who has made a career out of jamming all sorts of things into his piano – pieces of leather, felt, rubber or placing small objects on strings. Thudding bass notes that sound almost like plucked strings and angelic eerie treble distortions mean his live shows have a deeply meditative effect, conveying feeling through music – it’s a an unique live experience. A unique collaboration between two hemispheres, cultures and musical histories, Maru Tarang possess a repertoire spanning ancient Rajasthani songs and modern Australian melodies. To see them live is to feel that bond for yourself and come away humbled at having been a part of it. A technically astonishing MC, phenomenal UK rapper Simbi Ajikawo – aka Little Simz – has the backing of hip-hop sensation Kendrick Lamar as ‘the illest doing it right now’. Blending frank lyrics dropped in a smooth vocal delivery as hot and quick as lightning, unrelenting club-ready beats and a ceaseless youthful energy, this rapper from Islington is on a one-way trip to the big time. Charisma meets a musical sweet spot with a side of nostalgic warmth any time You Am I’s Tim Rogers joins respected Melbourne-based band The Bamboos. Featuring vocal power house Kylie Auldist theirs promises to be a raucous, delightful summertime show. New Zealand singer-songwriter Marlon Williams is a star at the beginning of its rise and no music lover should resist the opportunity to catch the glow he throws when the light hits. With a self-titled debut album that arrived in 2015 to a flurry of critical acclaim, he writes slow, wistful tunes just like Johnny Cash did, rocking three-minute tracks The Beatles might have penned and heartfelt ballads that would have made Elvis jealous.

Film lovers will take great delight in a performance by Jóhann Jóhannsson, Iceland’s answer to Ludovico Einaudi or Philip Glass. His stunning score for the 2014 Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe award, while his work on the recent drug cartel thriller Sicario saw him move into an entirely different, intensely menacing soundscape critics adored. Time magazine declared her ‘one of the 15 artists to watch in 2015’ and Rolling Stone agreed: Natalie Prass is a musician you need on your radar. Her easy rhythms and painfully honest lyrics will ring true to anyone familiar with the highs and lows of falling in and out of love, and her warm, self-effacing persona will have you humming and swaying along with her. Continuing

the legacy of punk rockers like The Runaways and Blondie, Sleater-Kinney revived an entire

genre in the 1990s with their edgy, unapologetic, good old fashioned rock and roll. Reunited after a decade of silence, they created 2015’s surprise release of the year, No Cities To Love, and with it comes a live show like a runaway train. As the youngest son of Afrobeat pioneer and fierce human rights activist Fela Kuti, Seun Kuti is a man whose name carries plenty of weight. Since inheriting the Egypt 80 orchestra after his father’s passing in 1997, Seun continues a significant musical legacy while adding a distinct twist all of his own, fusing jazz, funk and soul with highlife and other African rhythms. The ability to package arresting vocals, cosmopolitan lyrics and diverse arrangements doesn’t come often, but with Ibeyi – comprised of twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz – that’s exactly what you get. Any Ibeyi experience is a mystical delight with the duo’s ritual chants – sung in English and Yoruba – melding with synths and samplers, jazz vocals with a distinctly pop undercurrent and a slow-burn intensity with an energetic crackle. CHEVRON FESTIVAL GARDENS 2016 FULL PROGRAM Nightmares on Wax – Thursday, 11 February Jose Gonzales - Friday, 12 February Thievery Corporation - Saturday, 13 February William Fitzsimmons - Sunday, 14 February The Triffids – Monday, 15 February Waxachatchee - Tuesday, 16 February Dub Pistols - Wednesday, 17 February Kev Carmody - Thursday, 18 February Band of Brothers - Friday, 19 February Jose James - Saturday, 20 February Goran Bergovic - Sunday, 21 February Dark Mirror White Noise – Monday, 22 February Leftfield – Tuesday, 23 February The Necks & Hauschka – Wednesday, 24 February Maru Tarang - Thursday, 25 February Little Simz – Friday, 26 February Tim Rogers & The Bamboos - Saturday, 27 February Marlon Williams – Sunday, 28 February Johan Johannsson - Monday, 29 February Natalie Prass - Tuesday, 1 March Sleater Kinney - Wednesday, 2 March Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 - Thursday, 3 March Ibeyi - Friday, 4 March House Gospel Choir - Saturday, 5 March and Sunday, 6 March

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BOOKINGS AND FESTIVAL INFO: 08 6488 5555 – perthfestival.com.au – Ticketek outlets For further information, interviews or images please contact: WA MEDIA: Rania Ghandour NATIONAL MEDIA: Miranda Brown +61 8 6488 8618 / 0403 025 535 +61 3 9419 0931 / 0411 568 781 rghandour@perthfestival.com.au miranda@mbpublicity.com.au Perth International Arts Festival Founded in 1953 by The University of Western Australia, the Perth International Arts Festival is the longest running international arts festival in Australia and Western Australia’s premier cultural event. The Festival has developed a worldwide reputation for excellence in its international program, the presentation of new works and the highest quality artistic experiences for its audience. For 62 years the Festival has welcomed to Perth some of the world’s greatest living artists and now connects with over 500,000 people each year.

Wendy Martin is the Artistic Director 2016-2019.