Ned Collette & Wirewalker

Thalia Zedek

Berlin-based Melburnian Ned Collette got his start in experimental and improvised music, before gravitating increasingly towards songwriting. His literate, evocative songs are paired with music that's both adventurous and eclectic, and his albums exist inside a dynamic flux of folk, jazz and avant rock.

Ned’s most recent album, Our Other History, was released late in 2024 on the US label Sophomore Lounge and features contributions from regular collaborators including Jim White and Mick Turner of the Dirty Three, Chris Abrahams of The Necks, folk singer Leah Senior, and other luminaries of adventurous music worldwide. His live performances drift between delicate, intimate folk and explorative sonic jam-outs, both when performing solo or in various band combinations.

Over the years Ned has collaborated and toured with such artists as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Joanna Newsom, Cat Power, Bill Callahan, St Vincent, Kurt Vile and Deerhoof, amongst many others. Funny, haunting and sad, often all at once, the music nonetheless manages to remain plain-spoken and uncluttered, despite its expansive vision.

“Ned’s music wears its modernity subtly and surely and is as rewarding a listening experience as I’ve come across in recent times.” – Will Oldham

Thalia Zedek’s considerable body of work demonstrates a clarity of vision, a singular performance style, and an expansive range. Her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is unmatched. Thalia has long been a melodic songwriter in iconic bands like Come and Live Skull and never hesitates to speak truth to power. Her new album The Boat Outside Your Window, just out on Thrill Jockey, finds Thalia contemplating absence and distance, with songs as spirited as they are profoundly moving.  Unlike some of her more politically-charged earlier work, the songs on The Boat Outside Your Window reflect inwards, deftly uncovering how external realities manifest in our internal worlds, and Thalia’s unique musical voice remains potent and pointed.

At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana – just a moderate bike ride north of Louisville, Kentucky – multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter Ryan Davis’s Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in myriad forms. As driving force of the lauded State Champion, long-running member of Tropical Trash, administrator of the esoteric and excellent Cropped Out Festival, and lone proprietor of the Sophomore Lounge label, Ryan has recently produced his first proper ‘solo’ release with Dancing On The Edge – a rich, 2-LP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts (given an exclusive Australian CD release by Newtown’s own Repressed Records). It’s a pure collage of modernity and heritage. After a period of introspection spent re-immersing himself in his drawing & painting practice, as well as his newfound delvings into instrumental music, Davis’ sea change was imminent. “I wasn’t sure I would ever make another record of ‘song’ songs,” he says, “but last year I started writing again and it eventually took the shape of the record at hand. I worked painstakingly hard on the material and the process pulled me out of a strange place. There’s a load of inspiration captured in the grooves with Ryan’s unfiltered, folk-traditioned approach to poetic twists-of-tongue meeting head on with sublime instrumentation.

Ned Collette & Wirewalker

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