Fine Blue Thread

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Fine Blue Thread

The music of Fine Blue Thread is moody, open, sweet and surpising. With strong Indian and Indonesian musical influences the music remains free enough to express a broad range of inner musical desires - generating a distinctive modern Melbourne sound.

Fine Blue Thread's musical process always starts from improvisation, the ideas that emerge are distilled and refined to make music that is clear and has an overall simplicity, even though the underlying musical ideas may be quite complex. The music engages long and loose structures that gently meander from one musical place to another as well as very short, precise pieces that state a concept with a mood and then conclude, like Haiku.

Sam Evans – Tabla and Percussion.

Over the past decade Evans has evenly divided his time between Australia and India performing concerts as soloist and accompanist in both traditional and modern music. He has performed live on Indian and Australian television, on national and international radio and at numerous international jazz and world music festivals. He is currently teaching Indian music at Monash University where he co-founded and directs the highly successful World of Music Orchestra.

Ria Soemardjo – Voice and Viola.

Ria Soemardjo has established herself in Australia as a unique voice
in the world music scene. Born in Melbourne of Australian/Indonesian
descent, Ria draws on her deep respect for the Javanese musical
tradition in her song writing and collaborative projects. Ria has just returned from 3 months intensive vocal study in India and Indonesia, funded by the Australia Council for the Arts. She has recently performed in the Singapore Performing Arts Showcase, The Melbourne International Arts Festival and has recorded live for Radio National's Music Deli show at the Iwaki Auditorium.

Helen Mountfort - Gut String 'Cello.

Helen Mountfort studied ‘cello and composition at Victoria University Wellington New Zealand. Helen moved to Australia in 1986 and soon after joined the band Not drowning,waving. Helen was a founding member of the band My Friend the Chocolate Cake with whom she still records performs, and also a member of gypsy/tango band Cosmo Cosmolino. Helen writes music for film, television, dance and theatre and is in demand as a session musician having recorded with many Australian artists including Missy Higgins, Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, Midnight Oil, Renee Geyer, Mark Seymour and the John Butler Trio.