The Jazzlab - Bennetts Lane Jazz Club Brunswick

SATURDAY DEC 12 Triple bill

GEORGIA FIELDS with Andromeda String Quartet +

Xani Kolac : KOŁACZ

opening support set Monash emerging artist

evening show 7.30PM

The Jazzlab Saturday Dec 12 doors 7.00pm Show 7.30PM

Tickets HERE soon $45/40 Bookings essential

Headliner set 1 GEORGIA FIELDS

set 2 XANI KOLAC

opening support Monash emerging artist

Georgia Fields with Andromeda String Quartet

Singer-songwriter and sonic shapeshifter Georgia Fields joins forces with Andromeda String Quartet to deliver a bold collision of worlds: luminous art-pop meets ethereal chamber strings. Together they perform strings-and-vocal arrangements of Georgia’s original songs, blending the precision of modern classical with energy of art-pop. Georgia also uses live-looping to expand the quartet into a lush, immersive soundscape. The result is a performance that feels at once intimate and cinematic: tactile strings, soaring vocals, beat-boxing, and an undercurrent of raw emotional charge.

Georgia Fields is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and string arranger whose work spans art-pop, indie and chamber-folk. Across her two-decade career she has performed in some of the country’s most esteemed arts spaces: Hamer Hall, Festival Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, ACMI, The Corner Hotel, State Library Victoria, Melbourne Fashion Week, Festival of Voices Tasmania, Brisbane Powerhouse and the National Gallery of Victoria.  Georgia’s melodic, lyric-driven songs and genre-bending sound have built a strong presence on national radio and media, with airplay on triple j, Double J, Triple R, PBS FM, and FBi Radio. Her third album Hiraeth was released in 2022 to critical acclaim, with The Australian praising her “meticulously crafted art-pop arrangements”, and Beat Magazine declaring “her weightless vocal makes us feel airborne.”

Led by violinist Natasha Conrau, Andromeda String Quartet is a dynamic ensemble renowned for their adventurous approach to collaborations. As individual musicians they have appeared with many of Australia’s premier orchestras, including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Australian Art Orchestra, Melbourne Ring Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria. As longtime collaborators, Andromeda Quartet has performed and recorded with Georgia for over 12 years. Natasha Conrau (violin), Ruby Paskas (violin), Susanna Ling (viola), and Charlotte Jacke (cello)

XANI KOLAC

Xani Kolac is a violinist, composer, and improviser redefining what the electric violin can do in contemporary and improvised music. With a Master’s degree in Music Performance (Improvisation) from the Victorian College of the Arts, Xani has spent over a decade pushing the boundaries of her instrument. Her unique sound is shaped by influences ranging from Jimi Hendrix and Stuff Smith to Kosmiche Musik explorers CAN, to art pop pioneers like Camille and Bjork, alongside her deep roots in jazz and improvisation.

KOŁACZ is Xani’s new work exploring identity, belonging and the ways names carry history across generations. Sparked by the restoration of the Polish diacritic to her family name, a small mark lost through migration, the work asks how movement across borders, culture and family history shape who we become.

Commissioned by the Melbourne International Jazz Festival as part of its annual Take Note program, KOŁACZ is a bold and deeply personal new work from one of Australia’s most compelling creative voices.

This encore performance of KOŁACZ features renowned multi-instrumentalist Helen Svoboda (double bass, voice, electronics) and long-time collaborator Justin Olsson (drums, percussion)

 
In 2025 Xani released two albums: a live improvised recording from The Jazzlab, featuring special guest artists Shannon Bourne (electric guitar) and Angus Radley (electric bass), and Keep Moving an Australian Music Prize-nominated studio album inspired by Krautrock, jazz, and rock that delves into themes of grief, death, family violence, and love. Xani performed at Tallinn Music Week (Estonia), SXSW London, and was Artist in Residence at MONOM Studios in Berlin. She also opened for Hania Rani (Melbourne Recital Centre) and John Cale (City Recital Hall) and brought her highly energetic and acclaimed original show, An Inaccurate History of Electronic Dance Music to the Adelaide Fringe Festival garnering a five-star review. In 2026, Xani continues to dive into the possibilities of contemporary and amplified string playing. She was named the 2026 Melbourne International Jazz Festival’s Take Note Leader – a program addressing under-representation of gender diverse musicians in jazz and improvised music. As part of the program Xani was commissioned to compose a new work, KOŁACZ, which premiered at the 2026 Melbourne International Jazz Festival. She also supported and performed with Kate Miller Heidke in her 2026 national tour.