Shaolin Afronauts

Founded in 2008 out of a fascination with Afrobeat and creative improvised music, seven out of the ten band members were also members of The Transatlantics,[1] who met at the University of Adelaide.[2] The Transatlantics favoured many different styles of music, especially that of West and East Africa, but the breakaway group wanted to create something a bit looser and more interpretative, less arranged. The group started out as a side project, but found it worked well together from the start.[1][2] Bassist Ross McHenry says that he was inspired by the Afrobeat music he heard at WOMADelaide as a child, and he likes to write and play music infused with soul and guided by intuition.[3]

The musicians particularly styled their music after the Afrobeat style of Fela Kuti and his Africa '70 band and other West African music. A lesser but important influence was the 1970s avant-garde jazz movement, especially artists like Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders. Their sound also incorporates soul and traditional African and Cuban percussive rhythms.[4][5][6]

As of May 2020, the Shaolin Afronauts' Facebook page describes their music as "interstellar futurist afro-soul".[7]

In 2011, they played at Womadelaide.[4][6] The song "Kilimanjaro" was the first release by the band.[3] Later in the same year, they were signed to Freestyle records and saw the release of their debut album, Flight of the Ancients. The album was featured on Radio National Breakfast[8] and garnered considerable attention on community radio, streetpress and Triple J.

In January 2012 the band recorded their second album, Quest under Capricorn, with an expanded ensemble of 18 musicians. After a performance at the Adelaide Festival Centre, the album was released[9] on 6 July 2012 on Freestyle Records.[10] McHenry described the gig as a "massive undertaking" but a "highlight for the whole group".[1]

Follow the Path, a double album, was released in 2014, and in the same year the band played at Glastonbury. They continued to play regular gigs around Adelaide and occasional gigs and festivals elsewhere, including the two-day Blenheim Music and Camping Festival in the Clare Valley, north of Adelaide, in 2015.[1]

In October 2016, Shaolin Afronauts played the Kennedys Creek Music Festival in Victoria.[3]

In 2017 the group reprised their Quest under Capricorn performance at The Gov as part of the Umbrella: Winter City Sounds festival in July,[9] and played with their usual complement at Here's to Now at Coriole Vineyards in December of the same year.[11]

As part of the Adelaide Festival in March 2020, the Afronauts performed a show called "Mad Max Meets The Shaolin Afronauts", where the classic dystopian thriller, the first Mad Max film, was played with subtitles, with accompanying score played live by the band.[12][13] They played 10 songs, starting with "Kilimanjaro" and finishing with "Baie de Sangareya".[14]