PHILLIP JOHNSTON ‘PUFFS OF SMOKE’: LIVE AT THE VILLAGE
Puffs of Smoke is a live musical experience unlike anything you’ve seen before in the Blue Mountains — a program of rare silent films from before 1920, accompanied by stunning original music composed and performed live on saxophone by the extraordinary Phillip Johnston.
Dramatic bushranger melodramas, wartime cartoons, newsreel footage, and fragments of the very films that launched an industry — including The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) and Soldiers of the Cross (1900) — flicker on screen while Johnston conjures a mesmerising soundscape of improvised saxophone, looping samples, and overdubbed arrangements for up to 16 saxophones. Woven between the films, short narratives stitch it all together into a vivid fantasia — part concert, part history lesson, part cinematic séance.
This is new music meeting old ghosts. Jazz, silent film, and forgotten history collide in one singular night.
PHILLIP JOHNSTON ‘PUFFS OF SMOKE’ (Live Silent Film Score): LIVE AT THE VILLAGE [2026 CONCERT SERIES] // Saturday, 13 June 2026 // Doors 7:30 pm; Show 8:00 pm // Individual Tickets: $40/35 or Season Pass: $120
Location: Springwood Presbyterian Church Hall. 160 Macquarie Rd, Springwood NSW.
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/ PUFFS OF SMOKE /
Step into a world where Australia’s forgotten cinematic past roars back to life. Puffs of Smoke is a live music experience unlike anything you’ve seen before — a program of rare silent films from before 1920, accompanied by stunning original music composed and performed live on saxophone by the extraordinary Phillip Johnston.
Dramatic bushranger melodramas, wartime cartoons, newsreel footage, and fragments of the very films that launched an industry — including The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) and Soldiers of the Cross (1900) — flicker on screen while Johnston conjures a mesmerising soundscape of improvised saxophone, looping samples, and overdubbed arrangements for up to 16 saxophones. Woven between the films, short narratives stitch it all together into a vivid fantasia — part concert, part history lesson, part cinematic séance.
This is new music meeting old ghosts. Jazz, silent film, and forgotten history collide in one singular night.
/ PHILLIP JOHNSTON /
Phillip Johnston is a saxophonist, composer and arranger of both jazz and new music.
He has composed extensively for film, including Paul Mazursky’s Faithful, Philip Haas’ The Music of Chance and Money Man, Doris Dörrie’s Paradise and Geld, Stolen Life by Peter Rasmussen and Jackie Turnure (which won a New York Machinima Award for Best Music Score), Noise by Henry Bean, and Kathryn Millard’s Shock Room.
He has performed original scores for silent films at Sydney Film Festival, Sydney Vivid, Melbourne Festival of the Arts, MONA FOMA, Woodford Folk Festival, Revelation Perth Film Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival and at the Sydney Opera House, Australian Centre for the Moving Image and National Film and Sound Archive.
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/ LIVE AT THE VILLAGE /
Live at the Village has been presenting music concerts in the iconic Blue Mountains since 2009. We are dedicated to presenting the best Australian contemporary composers and musicians in an eclectic range of music styles, including world, jazz, soul, folk, and all improvised music genres. Performances occur at Springwood in the lower Blue Mountains, just over an hour west of the centre of Sydney. Live at the Village members are professional musicians of national standing and music lovers.
/ THE SCHEDULE /
Date: Saturday, 13 June 2026.
Venue: Springwood Presbyterian Church Hall. 160 Macquarie Rd, Springwood NSW.
Doors Open: 7:30 pm
First Set: 8:00-8:45 pm
Second Set: 9:15-10:00 pm
Tickets: General Admission $40 or Concessions $35; Or included as part of a Season Pass: $120