Mo’Ju has released one of the most powerful projects of their career with the arrival of Mo’Ju with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Double J Live at the Wireless), a live album recorded at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall and now out via ABC Music.
The record documents a landmark 2023 performance that saw the Naarm-based artist’s music transformed by the cinematic sweep of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under conductor Nicholas Buc, with arrangements by composer Jamie Messenger. The performance was originally broadcast by Double J as part of its Live at the Wireless series and now arrives as a fully realised live album.
Mo’Ju, one of the most important and uncompromising voices in Australian music, describes the record as a chance to revisit their catalogue in an entirely new light. “When I started writing Change Has To Come five or so years ago, I could see the world heading down a path that deeply concerned me. Now, in many ways things are much worse than I imagined. From the genocide in Gaza, the Anti-Immigration protests here, to the persistent attacks on First Nations and Trans people everywhere. Things seem to have gone from bad to worse,” they explain.
“As such, I believe the song is even more relevant than ever before. I’d like to think that people might be able to find a message of hope and a call to action in this song.”
‘Change Has To Come’ is the centrepiece of the live album, presented in a powerful new symphonic arrangement that only heightens its message of resilience and collective accountability. It sits alongside other works reimagined in collaboration with the MSO, with more than 70 musicians sharing the stage with Mo’Ju’s own seven-piece band across a night that was both intimate and monumental.
This live release follows on from Mo’Ju’s acclaimed fourth studio album Oro, Plata, Mata (2023), which was launched with two extraordinary orchestral shows at the Sydney Opera House and Hamer Hall.
Those shows marked a bold expansion of Mo’Ju’s already genre-defying sound into something altogether larger, more cinematic and more emotionally charged.
Mo’Ju has long defied classification, refusing to be boxed into neat categories or reduced to industry labels. As a Filipino/Wiradjuri musician, songwriter and storyteller, their creative path has been defined by authenticity, legacy and truth-telling. The result has been widespread critical and industry recognition: Mo’Ju has been awarded the Melbourne Prize for Music, received honours at the National Indigenous Music Awards, Dreamtime Awards, AIR, APRA, NLMAs, AWMAs, J Awards and Music Victoria, as well as landing four ARIA nominations and a spot on the 2023 Australian Music Prize shortlist.
The collaboration with the MSO is a natural progression for an artist who thrives on pushing boundaries.
Where earlier records fused soul, R&B, pop, folk and hip hop elements, the orchestral setting magnifies the emotional weight of Mo’Ju’s lyrics and offers listeners a new entry point into their catalogue.
For fans, this live album is a document of a pivotal moment in Mo’Ju’s career and a reminder of the way art can connect personal narrative to universal struggles.
While the orchestral project represents Mo’Ju at their most expansive, the artist will head in the opposite direction this October, performing a pair of intimate stripped-back shows, just piano and vocals, at Castlemaine and Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival. Unfortunately, previously announced shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania have been cancelled due to logistical issues, with refunds available at point of purchase.
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