Mess Esque (Aus) - Timothy Blackman And Tessa De Lyon

Australia's Mess Esque have announced their first ever nationwide tour of Aotearoa. The collaborative project of multi-instrumentalist Mick Turner (Dirty Three) and the spellbinding singing / poetic spoken word utterances of Helen Franzmann (McKisko), Mess Esque's 2021 self-titled debut album was recorded between both artists' home bases in Melbourne and Brisbane during the lockdown era — in fact they didn't meet in the physical realm until after their long player was completed. They'll be playing intimate headline dates together in Tāmaki Makaurau, Featherston, Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Ōtepoti.

Mess Esque features Mick Turner and Helen Franzmann. The duo, whose base is both Melbourne and Brisbane, and who recorded an album before ever meeting in person and another soon after, released their second album - simply titled Mess esque on Milk! records (and Drag City in the US). Things quickly moved along with an Australian, American and European tour. Their debut album landed in Jeff Tweedy's Top Ten of 2021 and led to a coveted invitation to Wilco's Solid Sound Festival in Massachusetts where they also played in Will Oldham's band. Tours with Kurt Vile and Big Thief followed.

Through a patient balance of improvisations and a focused pursuit of something that wasn't fully there at the start, Mess Esque willed themselves and their world into verdant, lustrous being. For their first time in Aotearoa Mess Esque are going to recreate these special songs with Keeley Young on bass/vocals and Greg Cairns on drums. The results will no doubt be as captivating & mesmeric as they appear on the records.