If you were at The Others Way last year and caught Georgia Knight’s solo set, you already know. If you weren’t, Boiler Room’s Chris Schulz summed it up pretty well: “Georgia Knight just stole the damn show.” High praise, and entirely deserved by all accounts.
The Naarm-born, sometimes Aotearoa-based artist makes otherworldly pop from autoharp, dusty loops, synth textures and avant-garde edges — the kind of music that’s genuinely hard to place in a genre but immediately recognisable as something special. Her independently released debut album Beanpole, recorded with Andrew ‘Idge’ Hehir, has spent the past year quietly winning over some very serious admirers. KEXP described it as “an evocative set of dimly-lit, hypnotic, psych-tinted pop.” KCRW highlighted her “shadowy, seductive trip-hop textures.” BBC Radio 6 Music reported goosebumps. Sharon Van Etten, Arab Strap and BBC Radio 6 have all offered praise. That’s a remarkable list of co-signs for a debut record.
The past year has been a big one. She played The Great Escape in the UK, Golden Plains and Phoenix Central Park in Australia, Port Noise and The Others Way here in Aotearoa, and has shared stages with Blonde Redhead and Mogwai. The world is catching on.
Now she’s back in New Zealand, and this time she’s bringing her full live band — which means the Beanpole experience is going to be fuller, more immersive and more powerful than her already spellbinding solo shows suggested was possible. Intimate and cinematic are the words being used, which is exactly the combination you want from music like this.
Alongside the tour she’s also unveiled a reworked version of ‘Desire’ — the first single from Beanpole — with additional production from Ōtautahi-based artist Chris Wethey, pushing the track’s sonic territory even further. Worth a listen before you go.