Live Review: Jamie Hutchings, Sophie Hutchings

It was a family affair at the Sydney album launch for Jamie Hutchings' new solo album Bedsit.

Sophie Hutchings, an acclaimed musician in her own right, opened the evening with a mesmerising set of solo piano. She's released three full-length albums on the local Preservation label and on stage she translated her hypnotic, subtle style to The Newsagency's baby grand piano. Notes fluttered and danced like lattice and filigree and there seemed to be a constant dynamic interaction between soft, melodic prettiness and omnipresent melancholic undertones. With an attentive seated audience, the effect was transfixing.

Jamie Hutchings has always searched for new ways to present and extrapolate his songs. From the spirited rock of Bluebottle Kiss to the wilder and darker Infinity Broke, the constant recognisable core is always Hutchings' songs. Bedsit and this tour gave fans the chance to absorb those songs in the raw, unfettered by electricity and volume. With acoustic guitar in hand and accompanied on nearly all songs by bassist Reuben Wills and Sophie adding beautiful piano on a handful, the mood Hutchings created was decidedly laid-back, with a warm conviviality in the air. Opening with Bedsit tracks, Second Winter and Judas Is A Girl, we were again reminded of Hutchings' unique way around a melody - never taking the easy way, dancing and wrestling with the notes and transitioning from spoken word to falsetto and gnarled, strained vowels with ease. December Park was an early highlight of the new material, as was Here Comes The Frost, a song that could've easily inhabited any of the Bluebottle Kiss albums. Speaking of that band, we were treated to a brace of their songs, including Last Playboy In Town, Everything Begins & Ends At Exactly The Right Time and Weight Of The Sea.

Now possessing an enviable and near faultless body of work, Hutchings continues to explore creative and intellectual songwriting but never at the expense of spirit and verve. Those qualities were on full display on The Newsagency stage on this autumn night.