Illumine Byron Bay

In celebration of the Bicentenary of Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, the Byron Bahá’í community are holding a 2-day exhibition featuring art works inspired by the oneness of humanity, followed by a multicultural concert on the 29th evening at 6pm. The concert will feature wonderful and diverse local musicians and will celebrate Bahá’u’lláh’s appearance in the world 200 years ago, His vision and message of oneness for humanity.

29th October 6pm CONCERT

One of the featured artists at the concert is Tom Francis.

“New Zealand born, Byron Bay residing singer/songwriter Tom Francis has spent much of 2014 performing on street corners and at intimate house concerts. “I’m often asked why I play on the street. For me there’s an honesty and romance to one musician and an instrument. I also enjoy pulling people in when they aren’t expecting it…” It’s this same musical purity and honestly that has shaped Francis’s superb new record From Up There. The singer, who’s been lauded as ‘David Gray meets Damien Rice…’ has created a beautifully soulful work. From Up There is deliberately simple in it’s composition and it’s production. It is music in it’s purest form, hypnotic rhythms, warm lilting keyboards and Francis’s voice weaving stories that take you in and out of light.

Francis’s 2011 record, Wishing Wells, has a similar feel in that the focus was to capture the emotional power and coherency of a live performance, only this time he had beautiful drum work and Aria nominated producer/engineer Anthony Lycenko (Xavier Rudd, The Beautiful girls) to capture the magic, of which there was plenty. “For me, the real magic in music can only be captured live, and once we had the live takes the songs needed very little else…”

The new album is hope, loss, love and everything a great record should be, this is music for change aimed straight at the heart – as the rich, harmony layered chorus from the song ‘Side by Side’ rings out – ‘As long as we stand Side by Side, everything’s gonna be alright…’ Propelled by the desire to make songs with meaning for a world where a lot of music has lost its depth, Tom, armed with his latest record, is beating a path to the hearts of real music lovers, and as the chorus from the single off his recent release resounds – He is gonna ‘Rise…'”

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