Aurora

A life-changing concert

By Thomas Feng

February 14^th, 2017

A night of dark folk-pop

A little while ago I bought tickets to see Aurora Aknes, a silver-haired twenty year old Norwegian girl whose music is described as dark folk-pop. She came out with an album "All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend" last year and recently just sold out the Melbourne Recital Centre. I hadn't listened to her in a while before attending her concert recently and I didn't have many expectations coming in.

The night began with Airling, a young up-and-coming Australian musician with dreamy R&B vocals as the main support act. She is well known for the song "Forces" by Japanese Wallpaper (whom I saw in September). I usually listen to her on an upbeat but low-key night where I want to dance around in my lounge room so it was strange to see her perform at a sit-down gig on a quiet Tuesday night; I would definitely go see her again at a funkier venue such as the Northcote Social Club or Howler.

The Recital Centre

During interval, my camera couldn't do the Elizabeth Murdoch Hall within the Recital Centre justice; it is a work of architectural genius with three levels built of beautiful wooden blocks stacked together with carvings of tree rings throughout. Nathan and I spent the majority of the interval looking up at the ceiling, in awe of its sheer size and beauty. The sound quality and acoustics were perfect; my ears tingled with delight throughout the entire evening.

A thousand black water lilies

She performed "Black Water Lilies" first, and it took me to a reverie where the stars shimmered with light, the sea laid calm and the trees felt young again.

"In the river

I'm floating in

Underwater

I'm diving into the ocean

A thousand black water lilies"

From that moment onwards, I knew Aurora was going to be transcendental.

Beautiful chaos

She sung of home in the mountains and forests of Norway in "Runaway" before speaking to the crowd about how chaotic the world feels in comparison to home.

"How beautiful chaos is and how terrifying it has become. Sometimes I just want to see the world again through the eyes of an innocent child."

My eyes were teary after listening to her sing the softest, most tender song: "Through The Eyes of A Child". Her voice reached unbelievable heights and the sheer poignant rawness is something I will never forget. Once the song faded into stillness, we were all children wishing for the world to be a better, more loving place.

A song which changed my life

Her performance of "I Went Too Far" was the most special moment of the night, because it managed to capture some of my incredibly complex emotions around love, pain, hope and loss into one song.

"This song is about remembering that you deserve to be loved as much as you love someone else; we should love ourselves and learn that it is enough."

The song was a ladder out of the chasm I'd fallen into: each line of the song helped me climb each step until I reached the top. I cried a lot listening to that song because it was painful hearing the truth, but after the tears dried I knew that what I needed to do was to learn how to love myself again.

Unapologetically herself

Her authenticity as a performer, musician and person elevated the entire performance to heavenly heights. She would talk about beautiful chaos and also how clumsily jetlagged she was; she would let the music guide her movements; she would twirl and run around stage dancing to the beat in between lines of songs; she would roll and contort her entire body to be water when sung about the ocean; she would sweetly return affectionate affirmations shouted from the crowd; she was a twenty year old silver haired Norwegian girl from the forest; and she was unapologetically herself.

It was the best performance and concert I have ever attended. She deserved the two standing ovations after her 1 hour 45 minute set, including the most beautiful rendition of Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) in her encore performance. It was better than the time I saw Florence + the Machine run onto the lawn on Sydney Myer Music Bowl right in front of me; it was better than anything I had ever seen or heard and I'm not sure I ever will. The venue, the sound and Aurora were truly out of this world.

Thank you Aurora for being a human pixie angel who blessed the world with your beautiful music; thank you for reminding me that I deserve love; and thank you for being a moth who finds light even in the darkest of places.