Vocalist/composer Gian Slater is an icon in the jazz and contemporary music circles, in Australia and abroad. She has long been a singer’s singer: an individualist whose vocal artistry and sophisticated songwriting has forged a creatively adventurous career. Gian’s longtime collaboration with Simon Barker has most recently resulted in Gian’s sixth solo album ‘Grey is Ground’ released by New York based label Biophilia Records. The album, four years in the making, marks Slater’s deepest dive into the unknown at once fizzing, technicolour synth-epic and poignant singer-songwriter confessional.

In Slater’s beautiful, complicated world, optimism and realism cohabitate, self-criticism and self-acceptance bend and blur. Slater can make the everyday appear galactic, or the sublime handheld. And amid the complex rhythms and catchy choruses, Slater is trying, in her words, to “hold on to the question”, to see if doubt might be a doorway to love.

Since the release of ‘Grey is Ground’, Gian has been composing new solo repertoire. After writing for many small, large and vocal ensembles in recent years, she has been inspired to return to a solo mode of composition and performance with a new sense of adventure and curiosity. Sparked by her current PhD research, her new music weaves her love of songwriting with newfound rhythmic approaches and improvisational spaces. She will be joined by Simon Barker on drums for this special preview of all new repertoire.