James Howard

James Howard is a Jaadwa composer, producer and sound artist with a contemporary music practice that establishes connection to his First Nations culture, Country, and personal identity. His creative work informs a continuous process of cultural reclamation, often layering personal, family, and community narratives into long-form, improvised ambient and electronic works.

Drawing on a sonic palette featuring voice, synthesizers, archival samples, and field recordings, Howard’s compositions are driven by the potential for First Nations storytelling to be realised through contemporary electronic arrangements. In 2021 he released his first album, Variations on Country, followed the next year by the mini-album, Music from ‘The Third’. In 2025 he will release his second full-length album, Marrow, adapted from the soundtrack he composed for Australian Dance Theatre’s 2024 production of the same name.

Howard has worked with a range of creative organisations including Australian Dance Theatre, Bangarra Dance Theatre, RISING Festival, YIRRAMBOI, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. His recent live performance project with Alice Skye and Michael Julian, Gikilangangu Wergaia won Best in Music at the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival. In 2022 he was awarded his PhD (Indigenous Arts and Culture), from the Faculty of Fine Art and Music, University of Melbourne, for his thesis titled Composing Cultural Reclamation: Reconnecting to an Indigenous Cultural Heritage through a Music Practice.

James is our inaugural Butterfly House Resident (2025).