Julia Jacklin Will Preview ‘The Gem’ at Craft-Night Listening Parties

Julia Jacklin is taking an unusual route toward the release of The Gem, her first album for 4AD. Instead of a standard playback, she has announced a series of craft-night listening parties across Australia, the UK, the US, Thailand and the Philippines, where attendees will hear the record ahead of its September 25 release while making music-inspired collages.

Hosted by 4AD as “a series of special craft nights,” the events are deliberately small. Capacity is very limited, and entry varies by city: some are first come, first served, while others require a small ticket fee. Selected events include raffles for signed prints, T-shirts, tickets and copies of the album. Jacklin will not attend.

The Australian parties land on 24 September, the night before the album arrives. Brisbane’s Stash World, Melbourne’s That Paper Joint and Sydney Collage Society host 18+ events at 6pm local time, priced at $10. Tickets go on sale from 10am local time on 14 September via Jacklin’s website.

The Gem was produced by Jacklin and Robert Muinos in Melbourne, with Jacob Diamond on guitar, Mimi Gilbert on bass and Jess Elwood on drums. The album enters Australia through Remote Control Records. It marks a new label context for Jacklin, whose songwriting has often circled the pull between intimacy and autonomy. “I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free,” she has said. “The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life.”