International Market and Audience Development Fund
There are some artists whose sound can be described as experimental, and then there are some artists whose sound you’ve never heard anything like it before. That’s exactly how Elle Shimada’s music can be described.
— Culted Souds
“Redefining the culture as we know it”
— VOGUE
[Elle is putting on] “a culture-led, music-first community event, reinvigorating the underground live, music/full-curation type events that used to be thriving in Melbourne.”
— Resident Advisor
“On her debut album, the violinist, DJ and producer Elle Shimada journeys through spiritual jazz and drum’n’bass in search of a home beyond the geographical. In her spoken word across the opening track Home Is ___, the Tokyo-born Naarm-based Shimada recognizes her colonial settler status, finding discomfort in attaching her sense of belonging to lands “inherently tied to the displacement and dispossession of Aboriginal people”. Instead, Shimada embraces her own physicality and the connective, community-building power of music as scaffolding and shelter. After years of disconnection and fear, Home ≠ Location is a soothing balm.”
‘The 21 best Australian albums of 2022’
— The Guardian
“Her curation is a politically charged peaceful protest, with emphasis on exchanging knowledge and energy between stage, dance floor, and community.”
— Liminal Mag
"monstrously creative"
— Beat Magazine
“Fearless music maverick”
— VICE print
“She’s already a global icon”