Jordan Ireland
July 27, 3:30pm, $51
Jordan Ireland is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and composer residing on Dharawal land of the Illawarra. Formerly a member of far North Queensland folk collective The Middle East, he leads the Sydney based experimental improv-ensemble Zig Zaggers, as well as the chamber pop folk collective Purple Orchestra and his heart to heart solo project Stolen Violin. His latest record, Spirit Walking, is a collection of instrumental piano motifs invoking both spiritual jazz elements and meditative ambient traditions as a portal into a world of playful imagining and astral exploration.
"This collection of music was made in the same spirit that I used to vibe from my mother and aunty playing piano around the house. I had a room at the back of a small single story brick thing and a large lychee tree grew beside the windows where I slept. On Saturdays mornings my mother or aunt would often play piano and I’d wake up with them mulling over the music of the impressionist composers, church hymns and her renditions of old jazz and pop numbers. I would watch the leaves and fruit do their thing and then get up and move about the house or yard deep inside myself somewhere half listening half asleep.
These recordings are a sort of ode to her and my aunty, that house, and all those that have shared with me an understated kind of hope and love. Most of these recordings are small improvised moments, some with a stronger sense of progression or melody beneath them, like walking around at night, being guided by something but without direction. It is incidental music and my hope is that it is enjoyed the same way I enjoyed hearing piano from another room as a child."
— Jordan