Mildlife / Sun Ra Arkestra / Wax’o Paradiso
Get ready to dive into a mind-altering sonic collision of Afro-futurism and experimental grooves.
Kicking things off at sunset, DJs Pjenne and Millu will set the scene for a journey to the stars: expect hypnotic ambience, atmospheric electro and woozy breaks.
Up next, the legends of cosmic jazz, 70+ year-old Philadelphia-based big band The Sun Ra Arkestra will send us into the stratosphere, with their positive vibrations and space-age, free-jazz energy.
As our energies in the Square align, Melbourne-based legends Mildlife will enter, to send you on a euphoric ride through rhythm and space with their psychedelic jazz-funk vibes.
Wax’o Paradiso will close out the night with their trippy grooves and ambient electronica – a euphoric yet meditative finale, perfect for getting lost in the music as the night comes to a close, and we gently descend to earth.
This epic gig is free, it’s all-ages, and it’s going to knock your cosmic socks off.
Oozing onto the scene with their 2017 debut LP Phase, Mildlife have swiftly grown into one of Australia’s most acclaimed acts, carving out a niche wholly of their own, one that traverses jazz, dance and psychedelic music into a curiously singular, entirely entrancing and moveable amalgam greater than the sum of its individual parts. Their 2021 album Automatic and their 2022 album Live from South Channel Island garnered the group ARIA Music Award wins for Best Jazz Album.
Inspired by the beguiling realms of 70s psychedelic and cosmic sounds, Mildlife’s sound owes as much to Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane as it does Ennio Morricone and Giorgio Moroder.
In the last 18 months, Mildlife have performed over 100 shows in 23 different countries, performing with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Khruangbin, Parcels, Kamasi Washington and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, and enamouring crowds with euphoric festival sets at Splendour in the Grass, Pitch Music & Arts Festival and Desert Daze.
American composer, bandleader and early pioneer of the synthesiser and the free jazz revolution of the 60s, Sun Ra, founded the Sun Ra Arkestra in Chicago in the mid-1950s. Sun Ra sent a strong spiritual and musical message to his Arkestra wanting them to help make the universe better through positive vibrations and music. The Sun Ra Arkestra are known worldwide for their live shows that combine big-band swing, space-age free jazz, be-bop, singing, dancing, chanting and Afro-pageantry. At the forefront of Afro-futurism since their inception, the Arkestra have recorded more than 100 albums during their 70+ year history. Their 2020 album Swirling was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Big Band Jazz Ensemble recording. Recent touring highlights include shows at the Kennedy Center with Solange, The Berlin Opera House, the Burlington Jazz Festival and a New York City show at Radio City Music Hall.
The creation of DJ duo Simon TK and Edd Fisher, Wax’o Paradiso is a Melbourne institution. The duo presents a sonic frontier with unparalleled synergy. Each rapturous journey, a cosmic concertina of rare groove and psychedelia that illuminates the vast reservoir that is Wax’o Paradiso’s ineffable musical knowledge and technical skill. The resultant long-lasting, high-impact performances almost always unfurl in moments that push exultant crowds to soar together in shared states of dancefloor freedom and energetic ecstasy.
Check out the full program of free live music, outdoor cinema and community events on as part of Open Air in the Square.
