Mona Foma Announces Stunningly Eclectic 2018 Line-Up

When you’re shivering your way through Dark Mofo many an attendee has longed for the sun-drenched stages of the festival that started it all, Mona Foma.
In January, soak up inspiration from the diverse, challenging acts performing on the lawns of one of the world’s great museums.

Now in its tenth year, the Hobart festival will in 2018 also take place at the top of the island, staging Mini Mofo in Launceston.

Festival headliners Godspeed You! Black Emperor provide the hook to get you there. The ridiculously loud post-rock titans are playing in Hobart, but their show in Launceston is a special partnership with acclaimed Canadian contemporary dance company the Holy Body Tattoo; God Speed! will accompany a dance performance live. It’s collaborations like this that make Mona’s festivals so special.

Launceston will also host Belgian-born, Australian musician Gotye, who will play a tribute to early French synth pioneer Jean Jacques Perrey. Gotye will make use of the Ondioline for the performance, a rare early electronic instrument considered the forerunner to the modern synthesiser.

Hobart will host perennial provocateur Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, who fronted industrial legends Throbbing Gristle and founded Psychic TV, a band whose early experiments with video art and electronic sound has remained hugely influential.

Mayhem, another provocative act, is on the bill. Considered one of the foundational bands of Norway’s black metal scene, it has been connected to various controversies over its decades-long career. Linked to a series of church burnings in their homeland, the band has also experienced tragedy over its lifetime. The 1991 suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin (stage name “Dead”) was followed by the murder of guitarist Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous) by a former member – Varg Vikernes of Burzum – just a couple of years later. The band will play their 1994 album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas in full.

Jamila Woods will lighten the vibe with her breezy take on soul and R’n’B. Where many of her contemporaries exist in a world of clattering trap snares and murky electronics, Woods – who has collaborated with Chance the Rapper – follows a lighter, organic road. Think the psychedelia of De La Soul with the truth of Jill Scott. African music will be further highlighted by multi instrumentalist Brian Jackson, who will perform the music of his one-time collaborator Gil Scott-Heron, as well the songs of Nina Simone.

Other highlights include a 24-hour performance by musician Martin Blackwell performed on a crazy array of instruments from around the world; a 20-part set of musical compositions inspired by Dune author Frank Herbert’s novel, The Green Brain Cycle; and the festival’s late-night party hub Faux Mo, which will have a new home in MAC2 on Hobart’s waterfront.

Mona Foma takes place in Hobart and Launceston from January 12–22, 2018. Tickets go on sale Monday October 16 from 12pm.

Mona Foma 2018 full line-up

Brian Jackson with the Southern Gospel Choir (AUS/USA)
Emel Mathlouthi (TUN)
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (UK/USA)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (CAN)
Gotye Presents a Tribute to Jean-Jacques Perrey (AUS/USA)
Launceston Block Party Mayhem (NOR)
Monumental - The Holy Body Tattoo (CAN) with live music by Godspeed You! Black Emperor (CAN)
Moor Mother featuring Rasheedah Phillips (USA)
Violent Femmes + the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (USA/AUS)
Adam Simmons
Ajak Kwai
Alessandra Garosi (ITA)
Andrew Bainbridge
Austin Buckett and Martin Ng
Black Quantum Futurism Collective (USA)
Black Rock Band
Blaise Garza and John Sparrow (USA)
Breadwoman Variations (USA)
Chakam Ensemble (IRN/AUS)
Cinemofo
David Jones
Edley ODowd
Eve Klein
Evil Goat
Faux Mo
Fémina (ARG)
Filastine and Nova (USA/IDN)
Gordon Gano (USA)
Hobart Liberation Orchestra featuring Petra Haden (AUS/USA)
Hobart + Music = Yeah: Re/cognition
Jamila Woods (USA)
Jim Denley and Rosalind Hall
Joseph Nolan and Brent Grapes
Kardajala Kirridarra
Martin Blackwell
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Michael Candy and Rosalind Hall
Michael Kieran Harvey, Arjun von Caemmerer and Brigita Ozolins
Military Position
MoMa
Rahim AlHaj and Karim Wasfi (IRQ)
Rod Thomson
SAAKA
Silver Space
Sisters Akousmatica
Sonya Lifschitz
Tannery: Tasmanian Taiko and Leather Orchestra
The Daemons of Dissent
The Ghosts of Nothing featuring Laura Purcell
The Museum of Everything
Thembi Soddell
TSO
Chorus extreme Unconscious Collective

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