The Burley Griffin
Lost Limbs

Sia Ahmad returns with A Body of Full Of Tears, the Canberra sound artist’s first new work as Shoeb Ahmad since “quiver” (2018) and their departure from critically-acclaimed jazz ensemble Tangents.Where “quiver” embodied themes of dysphoria and identity with a soul-pop conceit, ABFOT dives headfirst into the tumult beneath waves of distorted sound, obscuring Ahmad’s foundational songwriting in the process. It’s the cathartic din of an artist rediscovering the expressive and electronic elements of their early practice, marked by a period of deep isolation where questions of artistic and familial identity prevailed.All profits from sales go towards ongoing contributions made to Aboriginal Legal NSW/ACT and Pay The Rent.

From On-Ly on Yurodivy:The provenant concept of Yurodivy is: through madness, one paints the madness of the world. Russia became the looking-glass for lessons not for the historical content but for how that content was preserved - against all odds - by citizens; vanguards of history immersed in-madness creating art both as reprieve and as dissenting corroboration of a repressed citizen. Shostakovich's stories - his music - resonate with folks in a certain way; folks of this time and folks of that time. Anna Ahkmatova, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Nikolai Gogol - their words create a shroud for which to protect oneself. Our ancestors of Earth have things they can teach us about that time - our time.The intellectualism and cryptology of Russian musical and artistic expression is an endless journey into some of our planet's greatest minds and Yurodivy is about honouring them, their memories and their struggles but most of all their unbelievable zeal in preserving their expression in parallel with their experience at a time when heresy toward their conditions of fascism - to tell the truth - meant death.

Provenance: ...The contemplative and stretched out twin to last year’s A Body of Full Of Tears, Sia Ahmad continues to revisit her most formative inspirations on Facade, blurring aged textures into contemporary expressions on this newest addition to the Shoeb Ahmad oeuvre.Less claustrophobic than ABFOT and clearer in sonic detail, Facade picks up threads of familial reality, gendered safety and mapping place to weave into a tapestry of disembodied found sound, lush harmonies and widescreen metronomic presence. Once forgotten and now again inhabited, the songs here continue a journey to reclaim what drove Ahmad to create and explore.All profits from sales go towards ongoing contributions made to Aboriginal Legal NSW/ACT and Pay The Rent.