In 2018, Katie Noonan released the third album from her acclaimed ensemble Elixir – a collaboration of music, art and poetry with iconic Australian artist and writer Michael Leunig.
The ‘Gratitude & Grief’ album reinterpreted ten of Michael’s poems into a collection of songs using the words and associated imagery as direct inspiration to write the music.
After touring the album as a live show with Michael drawing live as an accompaniment to the music and backed by some of Australia’s best orchestras, Katie and Elixir bring a pared-down, trio version of the show to this year’s Adelaide Fringe sans Michael.
“We would love to do absolutely every show with Michael, but he's obviously a busy journalist,” Katie says.
“I think with the Fringe show [and] the nature of Fringe shows we thought it would be best suited for the intimate trio set-up, and then generally the shows with Michael are with the full orchestra and the massive theatre vibe; it's not so much a Fringe thing.”
Even without the added dimension Michael’s live drawing gives the show, Katie says Fringe audiences can still expect a well-rounded and loving performance of the work. “We still present the text in the spoken form because it’s nice to hear the poem as simply a poem,” she says.
“For the stripped-back stuff we still have the spoken word, then we present what we turn that spoken word into with the music.”
Adelaide Fringe holds a special significance for Katie, who cut her teeth at the festival as a young, live musician performing with another of her early bands, george. “Adelaide Fringe is always such a magic time for me,” she says.
“Some of my first gigs were there at Fringe in 1999 at the East End Exchange Hotel with george, that’s literally 20 years ago – holy moly, I just realised that.
“I’ve performed at Fringe on and off for 20 years. I always have awesome gigs, the audiences are beautiful and it's such a magic time to be in Adelaide. We’re really looking forward to starting our entire tour there and starting the entire Fringe, because that's the opening night.”
Katie started Elixir in 1996 and it is her longest-running creative project. In league with bandmate and husband Zac Hurren, Katie says Elixir serves as a type of anchor point in her diverse and multi-faceted career.
“Elixir’s been going for 22 years and it’s very special for me because it’s a project that I return to,” she says.
“We’ve only made three albums in that time but they are very special projects, and for me it’s extra special because I get to make music with my husband and main musical collaborator [Zac]. On this album he's been one of the main musical forces, compositionally speaking.”
Between her work as a wife and parent as well as any number of various side projects she constantly has on the go, Katie says going back to Elixir represents a comforting slice of living nostalgia.
“It’s really special for us to return to the simplicity of when we started, which was [that] we were just musicians, we weren't parents or bill payers,” she laughs. “We were young people discovering the world of improvisation, and that's a world that we continue to explore in Elixir.”
