Tara Clerkin Trio will make their Australian headline debut this summer, bringing the strange, spacious world of their acclaimed second album ‘Somewhere Good’ to the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room on Monday, December 14.
The Sydney performance follows the Bristol-formed trio’s first trip to Australia for Meredith Music Festival and puts them in one of the Opera House’s most intimate spaces. Led by vocalist and clarinettist Tara Clerkin, alongside drummer and percussionist Sunny Joe Paradisos and keyboard and synth player Patrick Benjamin, the group have spent the past six years quietly dismantling the borders between trip-hop, jazz, folk, dub and experimental pop.
The band began life in 2020 as the eight-member Tara Clerkin Band before contracting into its current three-piece form. Their self-titled debut arrived that year through London label World of Echo, followed by 2021 EP ‘In Spring’ and 2023’s ‘On The Turning Ground’, each release pushing their music further away from straightforward classification.
That evolution reaches a new point on ‘Somewhere Good’, released in June via World of Echo. Written and recorded around periods of international touring, the album introduces more structured songwriting and storytelling without sacrificing the trio’s taste for unusual textures, negative space and unexpected turns.
Its title track has been particularly well received, earning Pitchfork’s Best New Track designation, while the album has drawn acclaim for the way it folds avant-pop, modern classical music and left-field electronics into the trio’s already distinctive sound. Comparisons to Portishead, The Durutti Column and Arthur Russell give some indication of the territory, although Tara Clerkin Trio increasingly sound comfortable occupying a space of their own.
There is a restraint to their music that makes the Utzon Room an intriguing choice for the Sydney show. Rather than relying on volume, the trio work with detail, atmosphere and the interaction between Clerkin’s voice and clarinet, Paradisos’ percussion and Benjamin’s keyboards and electronics. It is music that rewards getting close to it.
The Australian dates arrive during a period of growing international attention for ‘Somewhere Good’, an album that expands the trio’s early improvisational instincts into something more song-focused without sanding away their experimental edges. Their combination of dubby rhythms, jazz-informed playing and dreamlike electronics remains difficult to pin down, which is largely the point.
Tara Clerkin Trio join a growing summer and autumn contemporary music program at the Sydney Opera House that also includes Dijon and Cat Power, with further artists still to be announced.
Tara Clerkin Trio perform at the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room on Monday, December 14.
EVENT DETAILS
WHO: Tara Clerkin Trio
WHEN: 7pm, Monday 14 December 2026
WHERE: Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: Standard $64.90+ booking fee // sydneyoperahouse.com
Insiders pre-sale: 9am AEST, Tuesday 1 September
What’s On pre-sale: 9am AEST, Wednesday 2 September
Artist pre-sale: 9am AEST, Wednesday 2 September
General public on sale: 9am AEST, Thursday 3 September
