Insert Folk Music Pun Here.

Last night one of my friends came down from Brisbane so we decided to have a night on the town. I found out two acts who I know from previous folk festivals were performing at the Toff in Town, and so I demanded we go and watch them.

My bossiness was validated two songs into Aluka's first set, as I peeked at my friend and found her gaping, mesmerised. My housemate managed to miss all of Aluka's set so she is being dragged along to their album launch on the 3rd of May.

Aluka are a purely a capella act, with three lovely ladies arranging original songs with harmonies and beautiful clashing notes building up into a product that had the entire audience utterly mesmerised, trying to follow who was making which noise until eventually giving up and letting the swell of beautiful noise fall over you.

I first met Aluka in September '12, when they hosted a singing tutorial at Roses Gap Folk Music Camp, and fell in love with their unique sound- I'd heard a capella before but never done in quite this way. They held two workshops a day with roughly sixty people at each, the first used to write fairly basic lyrics and then arrange them with beats and noises reminiscent to the camp and the beautiful Grampians surrounding. The result of the weekend was two original songs performed as a collaboration between dozens of people.

I am very glad to have been able to nab their new album 'Spaces', and the cleverness of recording each song in such unique acoustic spots gives each song acoustics and dynamics I've never previously heard recorded- Cave has been permanently stuck in my head since Wednesday, and I haven't stopped humming it once. It's foot stampingly amazing.

My housemate thankfully arrived in time for the beginning of Lucy Wise and the B'Gollies- I own Lucy's first EP, 'Something Pocket Sized', and it has had a fierce workout on my cd player and itunes alike. This event served as the launch for her second album, funded via Pozible by almost 150 people, and I couldn't wait to hear the new songs she'd concocted for this new masterpiece. There's something magical about a live performance of an album, each song having it's story shared and giving the audience and insight and understanding you wish came as standard with all music. Not all music would have such beautiful stories behind it though.

There were songs dedicated to friends present and past, sailing across the ocean, and a woman's dedication to farming organically while raising her children. One personal favourite, currently being played on repeat in my house, is Google Earth, showing a different, whimsical side to a technology that has changed the familiarity people have with the world around them.

To go flying over gardens of Sicily, following the river to the sea, where bouquets of umbrellas have settled in the sun, and the sea grass is shady on the reef. 

Lucy has grown as an artist of her own merit since I first saw her perform at Turramurra around five years ago, and I'm constantly envious of her skill on multiple instruments and her control over lyrics and music, and I'm looking forward to seeing how she and the B'Gollies evolve in the future.

------------------------------------

 Aluka's new album 'Space' and Lucy Wise and the B'Gollies new album 'When We Wander Far From Home' are available on their respective websites

Aluka || Lucy Wise and the B'Gollies