Since Jarrah’s entrance on the Melbourne music scene in 2008 with his debut album ‘Stargazer’ it was clear Jarrah was a unique artist with a sound and voice all to his own. Thompson seamlessly fuses rock, blues, roots, folk and world music into his own distinctive blend. It’s not everyday you hear a guitar / flute battle but for Jarrah Thompson, experimenting with new sounds, is what it’s all about. Likened to artists such as Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, CSNY and Santana, it is no wonder Jarrah Thompson has been labeled ‘the next big thing’ and has been causing a stir on the global music scene.
Stargazer (2008) indicated a wisdom beyond his years for young Jarrah, with lyrical ideas pointing to higher consciousness, and things in life worth holding onto. The acclaimed debut album, was a versatile showcase of well crafted songs from high energy, fuzzed out guitar rock, to finger picking soul with a live orchestra, this gaining fans nation wide. Through a successful Indi push, the album went on to gain support in local and community radio across the country, and enabled the band to tour. What followed was 2 years of solid touring, around 300 shows across Australia including small to medium festivals.
2010 saw Jarrah and his band tour Brazil where they recorded Jarrah’s 2nd album. The new LP, Rio Claro (March 2011) was named after the town in Brazil where the band stayed for six weeks of the tour and encapsulates the raw energy and rock edge, typical of a Jarrah Thompson live music experience. In Brazil, Thompson and his band landed the ultimate gig… A spot on the popular late-night talk show program, ‘Programa do Jô’, (described as the Dave Letterman Show of Brazil) where they were telecast to over seven million people across the country!) This preceded an extremely successful tour with hundreds of people showing up their gigs showing support.
Back on home turf in late 2010, Jarrah teamed up with flautist ‘Asha Henfry’ for a national acoustic duo tour, 25 gigs over 3 states of Australia. The pair were heavily featured and supported by ABC National and various other stations.
2013 sees the arrival of Jarrah 3rd release Voyager (June 2013). Voyager is a mixed pallet of sounds, the genres spread from rock, blues, progressive rock, folk to world music and is shaping up to be his finest release.
Some songs were written in Berlin Germany while street-performing while the others were created during a 6 month break in Melbourne.
Voyager’s title gives meaning to a place where the album came from, a more introspective album with lyrical ideas pointing to the inner self, freedom from self and mind, love and open heartedness.
2014 Jarrah made a very special collaboration with the Brazilian Percussion Orchestra. The group made a collection of videos and audio, the project’s aim was to fuse Australian blues rock with different rhythms from all over Brazil. Jarrah went on to collaborate with New Zealand animator Helena Van Kampen on a stop-motion music video for the song ‘I Am The One’ – the song was successfully funded through a kickstarted campaign.
2015 – Jarrah is currently living in Jan Juc, Australia working on his new album.