Sophia Brous Has Scored Another US Artist Residency

Australian musician Sophia Brous has been hitting it out of the park in the United States these past couple of months, announcing this week that she has been selected for another artist residency in New York following the success of Exo-Tech, her acclaimed outing with Kimbra, Sean Lennon, Questlove and more.

Along with Julia Holter, Helga Davis, Kelsey Lu and Yuka Honda — all artists that Brous says she "deeply adore[s]" — the Aussie creative will take up a position as 2016/17 artist-in-residence at emergent Williamsburg-based venue National Sawdust.

"Starting October, for the next year I'll be developing a series of new commissioned works in this darling city of New York," Brous effused in a statement on Facebook.

As New York's WQXR reports, Brous and her co-artists-in-residence will take up the role as part of the venue's plans to broaden its scope for its second season of arts and music events and projects, an expansion that encompasses the inclusion of musical theatre and opera works, an Afro-centric festival and the creation of a new online arts journal.

That won't be all that's on her plate in the coming months, however, as Brooklyn Vegan reports that Brous and Kimbra — along with Lennon, Colin Stetson, Caroline Polachek, Jim White (yes, of Dirty Three/Xylouris White), Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire), Dave Harrington (Darkside) and more — will perform the largely improvisational Exo-Tech again next month, with a show freshly lined up at Brooklyn venue Pioneer Works on 4 September.

Exo-Tech started with a smattering of live performances back in February before Brous made a detour to complete some filming work in China, returning to undertake a short artist-in-residence stint at New York's Red Bull Studios from mid-to-late July. During this time, she scratched off a bucket-list item by way of getting to work with David Byrne as well as this whole crop of excellent musicians:

And what have we done today? Cried into a pillow and had Skittles for breakfast. It's like, why even compete?

No matter; if you've got an hour-and-a-half to kill and curiosity to spare, you can watch one of Exo-Tech's exploratory February shows below.