Lines of Flight 2023 First Lineup Announced ft. The Dead C, Roy Montgomery, Surface of the Earth + More

Ōtepoti's Lines Of Flight experimental music festival is making a momentous return to sonically sprawl across three days in Port Chalmers and at Dunedin Public Art Gallery this coming October. Lines Of Flight 2023 will be a tribute to legendary percussionist Peter Stapleton (The Terminals, A Handful of Dust, Flies Inside the Sun, Pin Group and many more), who founded the festival in the year 2000 and was a key organiser up until he passed away in 2020.

On pause for the past four years, a heavy-hitting bill of locals and international guests will grace the stages and sound systems of Lines Of Flight 2023 — including free noise pioneers The Dead C, Ōtautahi guitar innovator Roy Montgomery, the first performance in 28 years from Aotearoa drone trio Surface of the Earth, US-based Bananafish magazine editor / Glands of External Secretion's Seymour Glass, Melbourne improvisers the Charles Ives Singers, taonga pūoro / live electronics duo Abigail Aroha Jensen & Tash van Schaardenburg, Hōhā (Riot Gull’s Madison Kelly and Night Lunch’s Liam Clune), new trio Sunset Temples (Campbell Kneale, Sarah Bingle and Elise Bishop), the all-star Aotearoa Snuff Jazz Orchestra (Jeff Henderson, Bruce Russell, Nick Harte, Matt Middleton, Reuben Derrick and Rory Dalley), and many more. Scope out the initial lineup details for this long-running Aotearoa underground music / sound tradition, stay tuned for more revelations (including when general public tickets will be available via UTR), don't go make any other plans, and book your own flight southwards promptly...

Lines of Flight 2023
Featuring... The Dead C, Surface of the Earth, Seymour Glass (US), People Skills (US), Charles Ives Singers (Aus), Abigail Aroha Jensen & Tash van Schaardenburg, Roy Montgomery, Aotearoa Snuff Jazz Orchestra, Sunset Temples, Fleshbug, Hōhā, Childrens Letters to God, Little Deaths, Grvdggr, DJ Kiran Dass + projected visuals curated by Beth Hilton

Thursday 26th October - Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin
Friday 27th October - Port Chalmers Town Hall
Saturday 28th October - The Anteroom, Port Chalmers (afternoon show)
Saturday 28th October - Port Chalmers Town Hall (evening show)

Tickets via UTR, release date to be announced

Read a history of the Lines of Flight festival HERE

Experience The Dead C's 2021 two track release Horror Stories...

Listen to 'Aura of the Afterlife 1' from Roy Montgomery's 2022 album Camera Melancholia...

Press release:

The much-loved Lines of Flight experimental music festival returns to Dunedin in October 2023 after a four year absence. First held in 2000, the festival will be celebrating its twelfth iteration. Founder and key organiser Peter Stapleton died in 2020, and this festival will be a tribute to his amazing and inspiring contributions to the underground musical landscape of Aotearoa.

The 2023 line-up features a mix of local, national, and international performers. Among those confirmed are Port Chalmers’ spiritual house band the Dead C (off the back of their European tour with Roy Montgomery, see below), and legendary NZ drone guitarist trio Surface of the Earth, making their first live performance in 28 years (!).

American experimental solo acts Seymour Glass (Glands of External Secretion, Bananafish magazine) and People Skills (Jesse Denlow) make the flight over, alongside Melbourne’s veteran artist improvisers the Charles Ives Singers.

Abigail Aroha Jensen & Tash van Schaardenburg bring their combination of taonga puoro and live electronics, and cinematic guitar maestro Roy Montgomery will grace the festival.

The full assault of Aotearoa Snuff Jazz Orchestra will feature an all-star line-up of Jeff Henderson, Bruce Russell, Nick Harte, Matt Middleton, Reuben Derrick and Rory Dalley, and new band Sunset Temples (LOF stalwart Campbell Kneale of Birchville Cat Motel/Our Love Will Destroy the World fame, joined by Sarah Bingle and Elise Bishop) will make their debut performance.

Exciting Dunedin acts include free post-punk acts Fleshbug (trace/untrace’s Julie Dunn and Shlee Nicholas) and Hoha (Riot Gull’s Madison Kelly and Night Lunch’s Liam Clune), occult improvisers Childrens Letters to God (Poppy Ophelia and Lainie Henderson), echo-cello duo Little Deaths (Sandoz Lab Technician Tim Cornelius and Glenn Ross) and noisenik Grvdggr.

Acts will be accompanied by projected experimental film (curated by Beth Hilton), Kiran Dass will be providing her stellar DJing skills, and Danny Brady will oversee the sound engineering.

As usual, the music is diverse and extends across a wide range of genres, with all performers having a common approach to pushing musical boundaries.