Live Review: Ta-ku, Wafia

If a sold-out Opera House concert hall, your pick of collaborators, custom graphic works and a whole lot of love is the dream, then Sydney’s Ta-ku is living it.

Shockingly the producer’s first live solo show, it was a fully curated evening that cemented his place in Sydney’s music scene not only as a formidable creative force but also as a generous role-model keen to share the love. It may have been Ta-ku’s night but every track was punctuated by heart-felt shout outs and big smiles. Sharing the stage was his band (keys, drums), an all-female string quartet, new collaborator and fellow Future Classic signee Oscar Key Sung and full-fledged creative partner Wafia. 

The night ran more like a showcase than a set: each track brought a new configuration of talent, a new lighting stage, a new visual (some were abstract, some more recognisable, all of them rising to the occasion to meet to organic warmth in his electronic landscape) and (I can’t stress this enough), new stories and love from Ta-ku himself (“love you mama” came out at one point).

After a selection from his first two solo EPs, including I Miss You and We Were In Love,he invited Wafia front and centre for a performance of their yet-to-be-released joint EP.  This included the recently dropped Meet In The Middle, but also a brand new track Treading Water. Set against angular, icy landscapes and a graphic remix of their two 3D-rendered faces (apparently Intel scanned their faces the week before for the event), the trio of duets brought out Ta-ku’s softer side (more piano, less chill, more sweeping, less funky) and showed off Wafia’s skill as a performer. After releasing an EP last year, she is on a well-deserved meteoric rise, comfortably taking the spotlight away from Ta-ku’s less developed vocals.