As previously reported, Australia’s biggest industry awards night – the ARIA Awards – is undergoing a major revamp, turning what was a single, televised event into a week-long ARIA week of events in the Sydney CBD.
The changes came as a response to the ARIA Awards’ struggles in finding an identity over the last few years, with last year’s attempt at reviving its popularity receiving mixed results, so much so the awards were kicked off the commercial television stations and relegated to digital only station Go! due to dwindling ratings.
The 2012 ARIA Awards, due to be held on 29th November, will again suffer the indignity of a digital-only broadcast, but the Australian Recording Industry Association today revealed the first round of nominations for their ‘behind-the-scenes’ focussed Fine Arts and Artisan Awards.
News Ltd reports that the list of nominees for the “gongs that don’t get televised” includes nods for the best producers and engineers of the year, and the best cover artwork from the last twelve months. While the Artisan Awards focusses on the wider genres in the best records in classical, jazz, movie score or soundtrack and the ever-vague reductive label, ‘World’.
Gotye, who scooped the ARIAs last year and has since conquered the globe with that song, makes an unsurprising appearance in the nominations. Cropping up in the ‘Engineer of the Year’ nominations for Francois Tetaz’ work on Wally De Backer’s Making Mirrors, while Gotye’s adaptation of his father’s painting for the cover art of Making Mirrors jostling in the ‘Best Cover Art’ category with the likes of Rennie Ellis’ sexy, sweaty Rio artwork fo Oh Mercy’s Deep Heat and Chistopher Doyle’s landscape photography for The Jezabels’ Prisoner.
In fact, the latter Sydney quartet lead the nominations, also appearing in the Engineer and Producer categories, while legendary producer Wayne Connolly also gets a nod for his work on Josh Pyke’s latest, Only Sparrows. Meanwhile Lanie Lane is looking like a strong contender for ‘Producer of the Year’ for being the woman behind the desk for her self-produced debut, To The Horses.
The soundtrack category meanwhile, looks like its going to be a tight race between Triple J’s Nick Cave tribute Straight To You, RockWiz’ Christmas Album and the Hollywood box office beating compilation album for Australian film, The Sapphires.
The winners of the Fine Arts and Artisan awards will be announced at an event at the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney on October 3rd, when the nominations for the remaining, televised ARIA Awards get rolled out as well as further details on a number of artist showcases featured for ARIA week.
Featuring a number of performances in and around Sydney’s CBD in the lead up to the awards ceremony with “up and coming artists who we believe to be fitting for ARIA nominations in the future,” and an industry conference is planned for musicians and those aspiring to join the industry, including the recently announced Electronic Music Conference.
You can read the full list of nominees below.
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
Chong Lim – Sarah McKenzie, Close Your Eyes
Lachlan Mitchell – The Jezabels, Prisoner
Lanie Lane – Lanie Lane, To The Horses
Styalz Fuego – 360, Falling & Flying
Virginia Read – Sally Whitwell, The Good, The Bad and The Awkward
ENGINEER OF THE YEAR
Francois Tetaz for Gotye – Gotye, Making Mirrors
Lachlan Mitchell – The Jezabels, Prisoner
Matt Fell -Tim Freedman, Australian Idle
Scott Horscroft – 360, Falling & Flying
Wayne Connolly – Josh Pyke, Only Sparrows
BEST COVER ART
Carlo Santone – Gurrumul, Bayini (Feat Sarah Blasko)
Christopher Doyle – The Jezabels, Prisoner
Debaser – 360, Falling & Flying
Frank De Backer & Wally De Backer – Gotye, Making Mirrors
Rennie Ellis – Oh Mercy, Deep Heat
FINE ARTS NOMINEES:
BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM
Jose Carbo with Slava & Leonard Grigoryan – My Latin Heart
Orchestra Of The Antipodes – Bach: Brandenburg Concertos
Sally Whitwell – The Good, The Bad and The Awkward
Sydney Symphony, Vladimir Ashkenazy – Elgar: The Dream Of Gerontius
William Barton – Kalkadungu
BEST JAZZ ALBUM
Barney McAll – Graft
Grace Knight – Keep Cool Fool
James Morrison – Snappy Too
McGann – Wending
Sarah McKenzie – Close Your Eyes
Steven Rossitto – Night & Day
BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM
Dead Can Dance – Anastasis
Joseph Tawadros – Concerto Of The Greater Sea
Nicky Bomba’s Bustamento – Intrepid Adventures to The Lost Riddim Island
Sarah Calderwood – As Night Falls
Warren H Williams & The Warumungu Songmen – Winajjara: The Song Peoples Sessions
BEST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK/ CAST/ SHOW ALBUM
Jane Rutter – An Australian In Paris
Jon English & The Original Cast Of the Rock Show – The Rock Show
Rockwiz – The Rockwiz Christmas Album
triple j – Straight To You – triple j’s Tribute To Nick Cave
Various Artists – The Sapphires Original Soundtrack
