Ned Collette - Mixed Light album Announcement

New single - Curious Thing - Out Now

Story by Hannah Alcock

07/07/2026

Berlin-via-Melbourne songwriter Ned Collette has announced his eighth solo album, Mixed Light, arriving via it Records/Feeding Tube. Restlessly shifting between folk, experimental rock, psychedelic pop and free-form improvisation, it's another left-turn from an artist who's spent more than two decades refusing to settle into one sound.

Across its 40-plus minutes, Mixed Light moves with disarming ease between hushed confessionals, bruised melancholy and bursts of wiry, guitar-driven intensity. Dreamlike ballads give way to melodic, rhythm-heavy detours before spiralling into some of the rawest and most raucous material Collette has committed to tape. The record brings together an impressive cast of collaborators, with returning Wirewalker bandmates Joe Talia and Ben Bourke joined by The Necks' Chris Abrahams, while Bonnie "Prince" Billy appears for a guest duet. Long-time creative foil Leah Senior also features throughout the album, lending vocals to lead single 'Curious Thing'. Reflecting on their partnership, Collette says: "Every time Leah sings on one of my songs a new character is created who spins around and deepens the meaning and relation of the other characters within. I never intend this, but am slowly coming to expect it – it's like writing a two-hander but you know someone brilliant is going to take care of the other hand. Every time I send something to her I can't wait to see who and what comes back." On the surface, 'Curious Thing' is perhaps the closest Collette has come to writing an unguarded love song. But, as ever, certainty remains elusive. Is it addressed to someone who's gone, a relationship left behind, "the world we've both outgrown", or songwriting itself? Whatever the answer, its understated warmth is offset by a lingering unease, culminating in the line: "I've seen the world in the slipstream of a dare, and that's what scares me the most." If the first single suggests a quietly introspective record, Mixed Light quickly proves far less predictable. Songs recorded in Melbourne with the original Wirewalker lineup and producer Dan Luscombe sit alongside expansive instrumentals and passages that nod back to Collette's earliest experimental instincts, flirting with the freedom of improvised jazz. Fans of his celebrated Wirewalker performances may even find themselves calling this his guitar record. Humour, melancholy and mystery continue to coexist in Collette's songwriting, which remains direct even as the arrangements become increasingly adventurous. Following the warmly received Our Other History in 2024 and the ambitious double album Old Chestnut, Mixed Light feels less like a departure than another chapter in a catalogue that has consistently blurred the boundaries between progressive folk, experimental jazz, indie rock and art-pop. It's a record that rewards close listening while refusing to stand still.