Released in October 2000, ‘Sunset Studies’ was the first long player from Augie March. After two EPs and several years intensive gigging around Australia, the band had built a burgeoning audience primed for a debut album that would earn a respect as one of the most expansive, ambitious and literate Australian musical releases of all time.
Against prevailing trends, the album (at 74 minutes long) covered ground more likely to be trod by poets, psychoanalysts, historians and cultural theorists than by an eager young bunch of suburban kitchenhands hailing from Shepparton and Coburg. Musically the album moves seamlessly from sophisticated to naive, from joyful to desolate, from intense guitar rock to stark ambient sound to traditional folk balladry, as band members threw themselves into each unexpected occasion and unfamiliar role with the abandon that only comes with youth and the sense that they might never get another chance like this, but with nothing to lose all the same. Recording was conducted everywhere from plush studios to bedrooms and cupboards in various insalubrious locales.
The album went gold, it remains a favourite of an unusually diverse population across the planet, and is regularly named by prominent artists today as enormously influential. Songs such as Asleep In Perfection, There Is No Such Place, The Hole In Your Roof and Here Comes The Night have all become cult anthems. Sunset Studies was launched at a legendary show in Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre; since that time Augie March have released five more acclaimed albums (with the promise of more to come!) and garnered a reputation as one of Australia's most unique and engaging live acts.
In 2020 Augie March is dusting off this classic album and performing it live at Melbourne Recital Centre on Friday 15 May.
An exclusive pre-sale window will commence this coming Friday at 10am (AEDT). More details later in the week.
- The Good Gardener
