Elysian Fields, Australia’s only electric viola da gamba ensemble, embarks on a tour of regional New South Wales in November, 2024.
Friday 29 November 7.30pm, Royal Hotel, Dungog
Saturday 30 November, 8.00pm Wauchope Arts Centre
Sunday 1 December 4.30pm, Qirkz in the Hunter, Cessnock Rd, Abermain
Impossible to pigeonhole into a single genre, Elysian Fields has appeared at classical and jazz festivals, broadcast on Australian Digital Concert Hall, and been favourably reviewed in jazz, folk and classical music publications. The band has released two albums on the MOVE Records label, ‘What Should I say’ and ‘FIKA.’ A third album, ‘Swirling Flame’ is due to come out in the second half of 2024.
Elysian Fields was formed by Jenny Eriksson, Matt Keegan, and Matt McMahon in 2015. The band is an experiment in creating new improvised and composed repertoire for the electric viola da gamba – of which Eriksson is believed to be the only Australian exponent.
Jenny Eriksson is widely recognised as one of this country’s leading acoustic viola da gambists – a 7 string, bowed instrument about the size of a cello but with frets. She has performed and toured across Australia and around the globe. She is a respected expert on the music of the French baroque and the works of the great French viola da gambist, Marin Marais, whose life was celebrated in the cult film, “Tour les matins du monde”. Alongside, and as a part of, her classical music appearances, Jenny has performed and recorded with jazz and world music artists for many years. Prior to Elysian Fields, her collaborators included Llew and Mara Kiek and Steve Elphick from the Mara! band, horn player and composer, Paul Cutlan, Matt McMahon, Joseph Tawadros, Kevin Hunt, and Matt Keegan. In 2023 she made a guest appearance in Norway at the invitation of renowned Norwegian jazz pianist, composer and Steinway artist, Jan Gunnar Hoff, whose music Elysian Fields has championed.
The backbone of Elysian Fields’ set list consists of original works written for the line-up by Matt McMahon, Matt Keegan and Jenny Eriksson, along with arrangements and originals by Susie Bishop, bassist Jacques Emery, and drummer, Dave Goodman. The band’s covers range widely from Eriksson’s arrangements of several songs by Marin Marais to charts and folk song arrangements by Susie Bishop and Jenny Eriksson reflecting Jenny’s Scandinavian heritage, to the likes of Swedish jazz/fusion guitarist, Mats Norrefalk, e.s.t. and Norwegian pianist/composer, Jan Gunnar Hoff. More recent commissions include works by Australian composers Gordon Kerry and Alice Chance, as well as Iceland’s Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir.
Elysian Fields’ influences are as broad as its member’s eclectic interests and include e.s.t., Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius, Tord Gustavson, Victor Wooten, Mats Norrefalk, Jean-Luc Ponty, Weather Report, Mara!, Swedish folk song, Jordi Savall, Marin Marais, John McLauglin, Pat Metheny, Jan Gunnar Hoff and Joni Mitchell.
Elysian Fields is:
Susie Bishop – voice/violin
Matt Keegan – saxophones
Matt McMahon – piano
Jenny Eriksson – electric viola da gamba
Jacques Emery – double bass
Dave Goodman – drums
For all the details please visit their website.
Image and media release courtesy of Elysian Fields