WARM CURRENCY [M Hopkins & Mary MacDougall]
Sometimes two fine artists come together after working for years in different projectsand the synergy is perfect, and the People’s Republic begins 2026 with just such a duo, who join us for a very rare performance at an intimate venuew hich should be perfect for their delicate lyricism…
WARM CURRENCY M Hopkins & Mary MacDougall[ guitar, keyboards, voice and tape ]SUNDAY January 11th at 7.30 p.m. [doors at 7]Warm Currency is a project by Eora/Naarm-based friends, artists and musicians M Hopkins and Mary MacDougall*. Mary began working with M Hopkins and Christopher Schueler in 2008 as Vincent Over the Sink morphed into The Bowles…**Quietly intense folk music, song-poems, and concrète collages are built from seemingly simple and delicate arrangements for guitar, keyboards, voice and tape.**Warm Currency have released three albums with the UK label Horn of Plenty: Returns (2022), Live at the Petersham Bowling Club (2023) and Petals (2024). In 2022, they undertook a tour of the UK and Europe, playing at Arkaoda (Berlin), The Film Gallery (Paris), Cafe Oto (London) and The Old Hairdressers (Glasgow).
Locally, they have performed at the Sydney Festival, The Sydney Recital Centre, MONA (Lutruwita), Noral Dome (Naarm), and in various pubs and parks.
On their most recent release, Petals, the pair’s haunting folk music comes into sharper focus while broadening their sonic palette. Spoken word meets chanted incantations, gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar is placed alongside spindly piano melodies, the creak of floorboards in the background mirrors the creak of fingerprints dragged across guitar strings. Woven throughout are bursts of tape-recorded radio static that reveal hardly distinguishable voices while MacDougall sings of equally fleeting phenomena. Winds, breezes, and mists rattle through houses and crumbling cityscapes throughout, with objects in a constant state of flux: growing, burning, drying, rotting, or unfurling. Such cryptic suggestions and surreal imagery evade easy parsing but like a poignant dream, they linger with the listener.
Listen to Petals HEREPLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL FOR ADDRESS AND FURTHER DETAILS AND TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCETHERE IS NO ADMISSION CHARGE FOR PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC EVENTS -* PLEASE DONATE GENEROUSLY ON THE NIGHT KNOWING THAT EVERY CENT GOES TO THE ARTISTS**
NOTE THAT THIS IS STILL A CASH-ONLY EVENT SO PLEASE BRING ALONG A FULL WALLET
OUR EVENTS ARE B.Y.O. please bring along any beverages you wish but no food is allowed