Spirograph Studies – Melody Driver / Church
In August 2026 we completed a run of 40 records for Spirograph Studies, a Melbourne-based art jazz band led by bassist and composer Tamara Murphy. This 7" single features two tracks — Melody Driver and Church — released on the Garden Seat label, and marks the group's first vinyl release.
We cut 40 copies on black 7" vinyl, packaged in a printed wallet fold cover. The artwork features atmospheric road and sky photography by Murphy herself, with layout by Jaxon Bailey-Banks. The record was recorded at Sing Sing East in January 2025, recorded and mixed by Hadyn Buxton, and mastered by Lachlan Carrick.
Spirograph Studies are a Melbourne four-piece built around the compositions of bassist and vocalist Tamara Murphy. The lineup is stacked — Luke Howard on piano (a contemporary classical artist signed to Decca Music Group), Fran Swinn on guitar, and James McLean on drums (winner of the $20,000 Freedman Award for jazz and classical artists). Together they make music that sits somewhere between post-rock, post-jazz, and post-minimalism — cinematic, textural, and deeply conversational.
Murphy is a pillar of Melbourne's jazz scene. She won the inaugural PBS Young Elder of Jazz Commission and led her previous ensemble Murphy's Law for 14 years. Spirograph Studies have performed at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, opened the 2017 Melbourne International Jazz Festival supporting Bill Frisell, and have two albums to their name — Kindness, Not Courtesy (2019) and Lowlights (2021). This 7" continues that run with two pieces that showcase the band's gift for space, restraint, and letting the music breathe.
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