Now! Here! This! Ōtautahi Festival Lineup Announced

As proposed by Jack Nicholson in 1989's Hollywood classic Batman, "let's broaden our minds" with the expectation-defying lineup revealed today for the first ever Ōtautahi edition of Audio Foundation's Now! Here! This! festival. Traditionally held in Tāmaki Makaurau on a biennial basis, Now! Here! This! has expanded in 2021 like a universe of sound to encompass all four of Aotearoa's main centres, thanks to a timely reinvention of the Altmusic touring programme. Canterbury's three day fest boasts a diverse, boundary-pushing lineup of artists sure to delight, transfix and astound even the most adventurous of listeners, while details for Pōneke, Ōtepoti and the super city are set to announce soon. Lovers of dreamy ambience, obnoxious noise, club shaking electronics, galaxy brain collective improvisation and more will have a feast of options to experience at Space Academy this winter...

Now! Here! This! - Ōtautahi
Thursday 10th June to Saturday 12th June - Space Academy, Christchurch
Tickets and festival passes available HERE via UTR

Thursday 10th June - 8pm

Death Horse / Lucy Reid
K Group
Bruce Russell / Noel Meek
Sewage
Omit

Friday 11th June - 8pm

Chris Spall / Maki Matsumoto / Nic Woollaston / Jake Kīanō Kinner
Motte / Ro Rushton-Green / Lucy Reid
Justin Dehart
k group / Omit
Nick Harte / Lucy Reid / Gabriel Griffin / Jonty O’Connor / Reece Mcnaughton / I.R.D / Mike Minchington / Luke Shaw

Saturday 12th June – Auricle Ambisonics, 2pm

Paul Toohey / Malcolm Riddoch / David Khan / Noel Meek
Nicole Reddington / Michael Kime / Helen Greenfield / Anita Clark / Ro Rushton-Green / Heather Webb / Nic Woollaston
Jake Kīanō Skinner / Geoff Low / Memory Burn

Saturday 12th June – 8pm

Rmf Thomas / Motte / Jonty O’Connor
Omit / Teen Haters / Emma Johnston
Poltroon / Sewage
Big Flip The Massive
Crone

Experience live footage of Omit performing at Silo Park in Wynyard Quarter...

Press release:

The Audio Foundation is excited to present Now! Here! This! - Ōtautahi.

The 3 day festival is part the re-invention of the popular Altmusic programme, which has seen regular tours by legendary artists of experimental music and sound art tour Aotearoa over the past decade. With the advent of Covid 19 and the impossibility of international visitors the Altmusic programme has been transformed to present 3 day festivals in Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington in addition to the regular festival in Auckland.

First up is Christchurch – over 3 nights and one day Space Academy will be filled with experimental sound and adventurous music by a huge roster of visiting and local artists.

Visiting Ōtautahi for the festival are legendary electronic music pioneers Omit and K Group, both of whom have a long association with Bruce Russell’s Corpus Hermeticum label and have achieved guru status in international experimental music circles. Dunedin based freejazz/noise power duo Sewage perform in Christchurch for the first time, and the visitors lineup is rounded off by Pōneke based doom beatmakers Crone.

The kaupapa of the festival is collaboration and the lineup features a full roster of unique first time meetings between local artists and visitors, including established sonic artists such as Bruce Russell, Malcolm Riddoch, Motte and Helen Greenfield, emergent artists RMF Thomas, Maki Matsumoto and Chris Spall, Taonga Puoro players Jake Kīanō Skinner and Geoff Low, relentless experimenters Memory Burn and Teen Haters and much more.