Banger-crafting folk band from Melbourne, Australia
Austral are a fully-charged, four-piece Australian tunes band combining didgeridoo, Irish pipes, high energy fiddling, journeying songs and energetic foot percussion, which features multi-instrumental powerhouses Angus Barbary, Caity Brennan, Rhys Crimmin and Connor Hoy. Their music is infectiously danceable and you may find it hard to resist the urge to get up and join the folkie dance party yourself. They have developed their own high-energy live stage sound and continue to receive critical acclaim for their 2022 debut album ‘Thylacine’. Winners at the 2022 Australian Folk Music Awards (AFMA) and nominated for a Music Victoria Award, Austral are shaping a new face for music from Celtic roots (and branches) at festivals at home and abroad and are a rising band not to be missed.
Thylacine is a collection of Austral's high energy tune sets and journeying songs, blending unique Australian-Celtic sounds on fiddles, didgeridoo, flute, uilleann pipes and more. The tunes written by members of Austral and friends in the the stylistic traditions of Celtic melody-driven dance music, but they push a few boundaries and add a few beats to keep the genre alive and evolving. The songs resonate with audiences at folk festivals and add intimacy and awareness. The album was recorded and mixed by Mischa Herman on Wurundjeri and Kaurna traditional land and mastered by Crystal Mastering in Preston, Melbourne, resulting in an exciting combination of high-quality live energy and delicious studio production. Thylacine won Austral an Australian Folk Music Award (AFMA) for Best Traditional Album of 2022 and has received a nomination in the 2022 Music Victoria awards. It's a cracker of an album from a rising band in the folk music scene.
