Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine are an ethereal electro-folk band from Melbourne, Australia who combine medieval/folk instruments and female vocals with electronic beats and waves of textured guitars. They have toured Europe ten times, along with numerous tours in Australia and appearances in Hong Kong and Japan. Equally at home lulling audiences in a theatre or making them dance at outdoor festivals, the band consists of:

Naomi Henderson: vocals, flute, recorder, percussion, HandSonic, guitar, electronics
Nicholas Albanis: guitars, lute, hammered dulcimer, Appalachian dulcimer, bell cittern, electronics, vocals
Phil Coyle: frame drums, tombak, aludu
Georgie-Brooke MacLucas: violin, vocals

Dandelion Wine released their new album Hereafter on the Solstice, June 22 2023. While the band have always flirted with medieval instruments and melodies, Hereafter features a more traditional medieval influence, albeit still with the band's idiosyncratic use of analogue synths and glitchy beats. Nestled amongst the lutes, cello, Persian frame drums and beats are medieval and Shakespearean lyrics along with melodies from medieval, Celtic and Greek/Byzantine sources.

In the midst of the pandemic, Dandelion Wine released Le Cœur, which illustrates their trademark tapestry of ancient contemporary motifs and was their first work with cellist Francesca Mountfort. The album also features guest appearances by percussionist Rüdiger Maul (Faun, DE), bassist Denni Meredith (Brillig, The Midnight Mares AU), frame drummer Phil Coyle (Deep Water Orchestra, Trappist Afterland), Hong Kong based erhu player HakGwai Lau and bass/Fender VI player Pete McKeown.

Following the release of their 2002 EP Light Streaming Down, Dandelion Wine embarked on their first European tour, which went so well it saw them returning to Europe for another tour in 2003. Since then, they released three albums on the German label Ars Musica Diffundére/Black Rain Media Group and European tours have become a regular occurrence, with performance taking place everywhere from regular clubs to castles, underground bunkers, openair festivals, a 1000 year old hillfort, churches, decommissioned slaughterhouses and even functioning psychiatric institutions.

Many tours were undertaken as a duo or with special guests such as bassist Steve Wheeler (Heligoland, Robin Guthrie) and multi-instrumentalist Kirstin Honey (Seascapes Of The Interior, Made Of Steam) but after a brief guest appearance at a concert at Rakvere Castle in Estonia the band officially expanded to a trio with New Zealand born cellist Francesca Mountfort and then to a quartet with percussionist Phil Coyle. After relocating to Tasmania, Francesca left the band and was replaced by violinist Georgie-Brooke MacLucas in 2023.