slow music club 02

slow music club is a new event series focused on artists who dwell in the quieter corners.

Its for those whose music rewards a considered ear in an attentive room. The Junk Bars dedicated music space (Skukum Lounge) is the perfect place to house this concept with the second iteration of the series featuring three Meanjin practitioners of squiggly air mastery.

1900 // Doors
1930 // Dual Dialect
2030 // fhae
2130 // Spirit Lights x Benjamin Shannon

Art by Two Crate Studio.
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4000 Records is incredibly proud to present:

Spirit Lights x Benjamin Shannon

Very likely the least slow act that will grace the slow music club stage, Spirit Lights finds inspiration in modular synthesis and analogue sound collage. Featuring swirling arpeggios and dream-like pads, Joshua MacGregor's Spirit Lights owes as much to the work of modern acts Jon Hopkins and James Holden as to soundtrack legends Tangerine Dream. Spirit Lights' self-titled debut album features gorgeous synthesiser sequences accompanied by cosmic-jazz drumming from Benjamin Shannon. The accompanying ambient rework album InBalance is a spellbinding listening experience written for deep reflection and stillness.

A running theme of spontaneity exudes through Joshuas work, and the addition of drums to the album happened late in the writing process. Longtime friend Benjamin Shannon (Big Dead, Milton Man Gogh, Kodiak Empire, Milk Buttons) stepped up to record and the result is a masterful display of art-rock and jazz influenced percussion. A few days after the first ever live performance of the duo, Ben recorded his drum parts in a single session. Guided by Joshua playing his hypnotic synthesiser sequences, Benjamins explosions of energy and complex fills are on full display in DnB-lite Running Rings. Spirit Lights showcases Benjamin at his most creative, with the solid groove of the first section collapsing into an entrancing avant-garde finale. 

Expect cosmic swirling synth accompanied by abstract, enthralling and unexpected live drumwork.

https://spiritlights.bandcamp.com

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fhae ('life in cycle' CD launch)
Ellena Ramsay's Meanjin based experimental-ambient-folk project combines ethereal haunting vocals with organic instrumentation and raw production. For their first release of 2026, life in cycle is an exploration of the human experience through the quiet complexity of metamorphosis. Across ten tracks, fhae follows the life of a single butterfly, tracing through its predetermined path from egg to larva, cocoon to flight each stage reflecting the human condition

Like a butterfly, we begin much the same, small, unformed, unaware. We grow, strengthen and when we emerge we are faced with the fact that our freedom is fleeting. life in cycle questions our illusion of choice, suggesting that despite our overwhelming sense of autonomy, most of us move through lifes inevitable phases: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and then finally death. We come into this world to grow, connect and then ultimately we disappear.

Why is life made only to die?

Through textured drones, ethereal synths, and reverberant vocals, fhae crafts an intimate yet cinematic soundscape, one that feels both vast and deeply internal. Each track moves fluidly through the stages of metamorphosis: fragile beginnings, restless transformations, and the quiet unraveling that follows.

The journey begins inside the egg and ends with death, completing a cycle that embraces mortality not as an ending, but as a gentle continuation an unseen phase that every living being must eventually face and enter.

https://fhae.bandcamp.com

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Dual Dialect ('Conglomerate' EP tape launch)

Dual Dialect meld mutated sax lines, disintegrated beats, and ethereal synth pads into an immersive experience.

The Meanjin duo features saxophone/woodwind player Andrew Garton (Ghostwoods, The Francis Wolves), alongside glitch/ambient producer Andrew Foley (YEARNS, Grids/Units/Planes).

On Dual Dialects second EP, Conglomerate, ominous synth arps ascend like stairs on a ziggurat. Enigmatic sax melodies encircle the listener, abstract pads converge like skyscraper refractions and slow, glitchy beats crumble like sedimentary rock. The EP glares into the ominous structures that surround us, awaiting their impending collapse.

https://dualdialect.bandcamp.com

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The wood knot winks while its trestles timidly weather on
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