Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon and her band arrive at Melbourne Town Hall with her surrealist pop mastery—groove-laden, liquid and lush.

Art pop that’s like a smudged oil painting of last night’s dream. It’s off kilter but it’s vivid, “like sipping wine through a telescope”.

Emerging from the freak folk energy of the late noughties, Cate Le Bon has refined and expanded her sound palette to the point where she’s the go-to producer for some of indie’s top tier raconteurs (Dry Cleaning, Wilco, St Vincent, Deerhunter).

Her latest album Michelangelo Dying, which attracted an otherworldly duet from one of her all-time heroes, John Cale, takes the age-old theme of heartache up into heady textural plains of dream pop. Steady, melodic bass. Guitars flanged to the heavens. Horns that sway on oceans of reverb. Synth lines that puncture like the stars and swirl the dawn. Cate conjuring rich scenes of distance and closeness, of mirrored places and robed figures on freezing beaches.

Melbourne-born songwriter Georgia Knight will be bringing the dark cinematic hooks from her latest release, Beanpole, in support.

More information and tickets can be found here.

Triple R Subscribers can enter the competition below to win a double pass to Cate Le Bon on Wednesday 3 June at Melbourne Town Hall, part of RISING