Keanu Nelson

29 April 2025

Hailing from the remote community of Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, Luritja singer-songwriter Keanu Nelson quietly developed songs with his notebook, guitar, and voice. Songs of longing for Country, for family, for girls. With no immediate means to record them, he fatefully connected with producer and musician Yuta Matsumura (The Lewers, Th Blisks) through the Papunya Tjupi Arts Centre, where he can often be found painting in the Western Desert tradition and curiously scrolling YouTube for music videos and concert footage.

In their first late-evening home studio session, Nelson nailed ‘Family’ in a matter of hours—his instinctive cues to the local gospel sound subtly warped by Matsumura's functionally minimal electronics and humid melodica dub. This impromptu jam became the foundation of Wilurarrakutu 's sonic palette. Working solely with the producer’s available gear, their collaboration drifts beyond the familiar contours of community music—often shaped by preset-loaded keyboard workstations or apps like BandLab —arriving at something singular and untethered.

Across ten tracks, sung in Luritja and at times in English, Wilurarrakutu ’s graceful audio portraits of place emerge as a revelatory fusion of storytelling and sound. Once aptly described as “Francis Bebey meets Suicide meets a slew of home-made Soundcloud artists, broadcasting from one of the most remote places on Earth,” the powerhouse debut notched up Album of the Week nods at community radio stations across the country and was released internationally via Mississippi Records and domestically via Altered States Tapes and Efficient Space.

Header image by Young Ha Kim, secondary image by Yuta Matsumura

Performance

Performance

Tuesday 29 April 2025, 7:00pm

Location

Phoenix Central Park
49 O'Connor St, Chippendale

Tickets

Free, by ballot only

Ballot closes in

Ballot draw date: Tuesday 22 April 2025

Ticketing FAQs

  • All performances at Phoenix Central Park are free.

  • Phoenix Central Park is an intimate performance space and tickets are limited. Due to high demand, tickets will be issued at random to those who have entered each ticket ballot. Each performance has a separate ballot, so if you would like to attend multiple performances, you will need to enter each ballot separately.

    We advise you to listen to the artist you are entering the ballot for, and consider which shows you’d really like to attend. Entering more ballots does not increase your chances of attending.

    Please only enter our ballots with your own details - if we catch you using false details, you won’t have any luck. We reserve the right to cancel any tickets we believe are obtained through false information at any time.

  • If you are successful you will receive an email up to ten days prior to the performance with instructions on how to claim your tickets.

    This offer is only valid for a limited time. Unclaimed tickets may be forfeited. You will have the option of confirming up to two tickets for a performance.

  • No, your tickets will be valid for a specific performance only. If you are unable to attend, please pass the ticket onto a friend or contact us at tickets@phoenixcentralpark.com.au to allow someone else the opportunity to attend.

    You can enter ticket ballots for your chance to attend another performance.