Beth Orton hits the ground running

BRIT Award winner and Mercury Prize nominee Beth Orton will return to Australia next year, hitting Astor Theatre on Tuesday, March 23.

Orton arrives with new material from her 2026 release, The Ground Above. Split into two distinct halves, The Ground Above navigates motherhood, mortality, political unease and the ongoing choice to remain present in the world. Self-produced by Orton, the album brings together a trusted circle of collaborators, including multi-instrumentalists Shahzad Ismaily and Sam Beste, drummers Tom Skinner (The Smile) and Chris Vatalaro and bassist Tom Herbert.

Across a catalogue that stretches from the pioneering folktronica of 1996’s Trailer Park to the earthy, classic-rock textures of 2006’s Comfort of Strangers and 2022’s self-produced Weather Alive, Orton has continually reinvented herself and her music. The Ground Above continues her sonic evolution, bringing together raw, searching compositions, spiritual jazz and improvisation to create songs rooted in lived experience.

“All the songs on the record are looking through the prism of the years from many directions at once,” Orton said. “If writing songs is therapy, it’s hallucinogenic therapy. It’s working with the unconscious, it’s lucid dreaming.”

Beth Orton plays Astor Theatre on Tuesday, March 23, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from ticketek.com.au