Toni Child climbs new sonic heights with mountain-top performance

Toni Childs followed a well-worn path by successfully crowd-funding her coming album, It's All A Beautiful Noise.

But the launch gigs, held this month at hiking stops above the clouds on the Annapurna Trail in the Himalayas, set a new benchmark for imaginative performance opportunities.

The American singer, last seen in Melbourne conducting a yoga retreat in Thornbury in February, called for a 25-person trekking party on Facebook. She and her band lugged sound and film gear from Nayapul​ to the 3200-metre summit of Poon Hill and beyond over 10 days. Oxygen and wind-chill factors should be more favourable when they reach Palms at Crown on May 15.