Junip

A night at The Corner started like no other, when two young-looking girls came onstage and delivered a solid 45 minutes of eerie, tribal-inspired noise. Alyx Dennison and Freya Berkhout are Kyü - a new experimental outfit from Sydney - and even if you’ve heard their music before, it’s nothing compared to what they sound like on a stage right in front of you. With deep and constant droning, pounding drums, sparkling glockenspiel, countless samples and eerie vocals that sound like spirits from an enchanted forest, their set wasn’t so much a collection of tracks as it was one long journey of sound, often conjuring up images of a call-to-arms scene from a classic Disney movie. The shy girls impressively juggle their many “instruments” whilst staying in beautiful harmony, almost oblivious to the people watching them. Even though Alyx sheepishly said that it was fine if we didn’t like them, their interesting sound silenced even the rowdiest of punters, as everyone stood absolutely entranced by what they were seeing and hearing. Whether it’s something you could listen to over and over again is questionable, but Kyü are definitely worth seeing live at least once.

From young hippie teens to old guys in glasses, the crowd that started gathering for Junip was unsurprisingly diverse, and no doubt the amount of people there had a little something to do with lead singer José González (a thought that was justified when at one point someone requested “Down The Line”). Even though Junip has existed for over 10 years already, it’s because of González’ successful solo career that it’s taken this long for the Swedish 3-piece to release an LP and tour together. However, when González, Elias Araya, and Tobias Winterkorn finally came out (with two extra band members – a bassist and percussionist), and that hypnotically smooth voice enveloped the room, everybody cheered through opening track “Rope & Summit” as though they’d known this band forever. And when the cheering continued into “Black Refuge”, from their 2006 EP, it became clear that perhaps many people had known this band for a long time already.

With this being the launch of their debut album “Fields”, the quietly confident Swedes played every single track, beginning with “To The Grain”, “Howl” (the song González explains is about “free will and stuff”), and the extended fadeout of “Sweet & Bitter”. It wasn’t until the moody, feverish peak of “Tide” however, that the band peaked in energy themselves, hunching over, totally engrossed in their instruments whilst holding that beautiful melody for as long as they could. They effortlessly translated their deep, hazy sound from record to stage on tracks like “It’s Alright” and “Always”, and showed off their impressive instrumental harmony on “Off Point”. As the lighting darkened along with the tone of the music and the spotlight shone on the drummer, his rolling beat dipped and peaked like waves, finally building into a massive crescendo of cymbals and bongos.

After finishing off with the now highly acclaimed “In Every Direction”, they came back on for three more, finishing the set at exactly the time they were scheduled to. “I’m not used to standing up with my guitar,” said González as he awkwardly positioned himself through another 2006 track “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”, the energy of which would have been a much better closer than the slow and sleepy “Without You” was. Throughout the show, González introduced each band member by name, and thanked the crowd numerous times for making it such an amazing night, but despite the odd bit of Swedish chatter amongst themselves, that was about the extent of talk and showmanship from the band. They all seemed like genuinely sweet and humble guys though, and they play their inexplicably mellow music really well, which is good, because had they not, there wouldn’t have been much else to make the show a memorable one.

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