Since forming in the early ’90s, Melbourne, Australia trio Dirty Three have created a form of emotionally charged, pictorially evocative instrumental music that’s unique to their specific instrumentation and group chemistry. Somewhere between improvisation and composition, Dirty Three uses primarily violin, electric guitar, and spare drum kit to make melancholic but inspiring pieces that reflect the silent majesty of nature, as well as the deepest depths of the human experience. The band was regularly active throughout the ’90s, touring often and recording master works like 1996’s Horse Stories and its 1998 follow up Ocean Songs. After the 2000s, they slowed somewhat, releasing new music at increasingly longer intervals, but still re-forming to make albums like 2005’s Cinder, 2012’s Toward the Low Sun, and 2024’s Love Changes Everything.
