Lillian Albazi and Oscar Neyland “Bright Phantoms” Debut Album Launch + Holly Moore and Aaron Choulai

“Bright Phantoms” is the debut album from Naarm based experimental duo Lillian Albazi and Oscar Neyland, bringing voice and double bass together in a restless and richly textured sound world. Weaving together fragments of post-punk, folk, modern classical, noise, found percussion, free improvisation and rock. At its centre is the interplay between double bass and voice: layered echoes and tidal harmonies move through dissonant extended techniques, abrasive textures and moments of quiet reflection.

The project began in 2021 with an experimental recording of Rowland S. Howard’s “Autoluminescent” as the closing track of Albazi’s debut album “After-Image”. Years later, that recording remains the starting point for everything Bright Phantoms has become today. As Australian music writer, author and curator Des Cowley observed in this Rhythms Magazine review: “Albazi and Neyland conclude the album with a stark reading on ‘Autoluminescent’, a genuine Australian classic, digging deep inside the song’s despairing lyrics. While early days, this haunting finale suggests one future direction her work might take.”

What began on a whim, became a six-year process of recording, experimentation and reflection, driven by a shared love of the sea, the loss of friends and the shifting landscapes of life. Over time, Bright Phantoms expanded beyond its original voice-and-double-bass format into a broader sonic world, bringing together works by Colin Stetson, Nick Cave, ANOHNI, Björk and Adrianne Lenker. The record was brought to life with Pat Telfer (Brian Brown Recording Studios VCA/Sydney Rd Studios) at the helm, alongside contributions from renowned Australian musicians James Sherlock (guitar), Niran Dasika (trumpet), Elliot Lamb (trombone) and Natasha Fearnside (bass clarinet), as well as found sound, poetry, analogue manipulation and extended instrumental techniques.

“Bright Phantoms” has existed in several forms on stage, first presented as a duo at Melbourne Recital Centre in 2022, before expanding with loop-based backing for smaller shows around Australia. These performances revealed a larger sound world that ultimately needed the space and time of the studio to fully realise.

Recorded patiently over six years, the album is as much a document of friendship, loss and changing lives as it is an experimental recording. It grew through connections with a small community of musicians and friends, with each contribution becoming part of its evolving shape. The result is a record built slowly and deliberately from bass, voice, found sound, poetry and a shared willingness to follow an idea wherever it might lead.

“Bright Phantoms” is a slow burn: a collection of meditative and powerful statements about memory, impermanence and all that we hold dear. Six years after that first recording of Autoluminescent, Albazi and Neyland are proud to finally present the album as a genesis – a beginning born from patience, experimentation, friendship and the enduring possibility of making something together.

Supported by Holly Moore & Aaron Choulai