The SoundLounge

Frank Fairfield

“A young Californian who sings and plays as someone who’s crawled out of the Virginia mountains carrying familiar songs that in his hands sound forgotten: broken lines, a dissonant drone, the fiddle or the banjo all percussion, every rising moment louder than the one before it.” - GREIL MARCUS “Frank Fairfield is the sort of person who makes you feel sort of glad to be alive, so passionate is he about his obsessions from a bygone age. Just talking to him for a few moments makes your heart begin to beat a little slower.” - THE GUARDIAN “... his destitute voice makes the microphone crackle, his fingers sliding and snapping against the strings.... Fairfield’s style inspires trances.” - PITCHFORK

FRANK FAIRFIELD from More Dust Than Digital on Vimeo.

Frank Fairfield is a one-man tour de force, a twenty-five year old Californian multi-instrumentalist (vocals, banjo, fiddle, guitar) dynamo who is resolutely circumventing and re-writing the rules for the folk/”popular” song tradition for the present age.

A torchbearer for the misunderstood or under-appreciated songs of yesteryear and with an intrinsically linked work ethic of dedication and understatement, Frank is sustaining and rehabilitating this tradition through his powerful and emotional voice, and through his musicianship - his performances on banjo, fiddle and guitar are technically proficient without being showy; somehow simultaneously played with an ease that tacitly encourages the collaboration and continuation of these songs for the centuries to come.

With a mountainous and religious upbringing and ensuing relocation and inebriation in his formative adult years, Fairfield was “discovered” busking in Los Angeles in 2008. A year later Frank’s music was embraced by a wider audience following the release of a 7” single and self-titled debut album on the Tompkins Square label. In 2011 released his second full-length album, Out On The Open West, expanding his repertoire to perform self-penned songs with guest accompaniment from Willie Watson (Old Crow Medicine Show), Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton and other luminaries. Out On The Open West is a fascinating artistic statement from Frank, proving that his raw passion and incredible musicianship are equally matched by a magnificent and powerful songwriting ability.

All the while Frank has honed his remarkable live performance with regular touring throughout North America and Europe, with extended jaunts alongside Fleet Foxes, Charlie Parr, and C.W. Stoneking; and been the subject of a acclaimed documentary.

Touring Australia for the first time in December, Frank Fairfield will be appearing at the Meredith Music Festival in Victoria and on select headlining dates along the East Coast. You really don’t want to miss this.

Laneway

Paul Hannan and Louise O’Reilly met and bonded over an eclectic crossing of folk & country traditions in 2007. Hannan had been the front man of numerous prominent Brisbane bands; O’Reilly revealed a self-taught guitar and voice that she’d secretly wrought together during an extended stay in Cape York. As Laneway, the pair’s enviable and relaxed attention to old and new combines a love of harmony, a touch of psychedelia and a pop sensibility.

Anonymeye

Anonymeye is the nom de plume of Andrew Tuttle from Brisbane, Australia. Tuttle’s work as Anonymeye reconfigures various organic and mechanic musics within a sonic framework akin to an abstract musical Esperanto. Utilising electronic and acoustic instrumentation including acoustic guitar, signal processing, synthesisers, and effects units, Anonymeye straddles and blurs boundaries between improvisation and composition, experimentation and song-form, rural landscapes and urban constructions and melody and dissonance.

Since 2004, Anonymeye has released three albums, a half-dozen or so short-form and split releases, and appeared on a score of various artist compilations. In this time Anonymeye has performed on approximately one hundred concerts across Australia and on tours to Europe and New Zealand, with further national and international touring scheduled for the next year and beyond. Although primarily a solo musical vehicle, Tuttle has collaborated on Anonymeye recordings and performances with members of Qua, Seaworthy, Blank Realm and ii, amongst other audio and visual artists.