Hand to Earth

A collaboration initiated by the Melbourne-based Australian Art Orchestra, Hand to Earth is an adventurously creative project. The Australian Art Orchestra's artistic director, trumpeter-composer-sound artist Peter Knight teams up with indigenous Arnhem Land songman Daniel Wilfred and his brother David Wilfred on yidaki (didgeridoo), along with Korean vocalist Sunny Kim and Australian Art Orchestra clarinet and flute player Aviva Endean. Founded in 1994 by jazz pianist Paul Grabowsky, the multi-award-winning orchestra is one of the country's leading contemporary ensembles, with a long history of cutting-edge composition and performance.

Developed during an Australian Art Orchestra residency in remote Tasmania, the core of this new project is the ancestral manikay (song cycles) of the Yolgnu people, the Aboriginal custodians of a 40,000-year-old oral tradition based in south-east Arnhem Land. Almost surprisingly, Daniel's remarkable traditional voice blends seamlessly with Kim's more improvisational Asian-based vocals on the tracks ‘Guguk’ and ‘Nunguryu Nunguryu’, while Knight's electronically-enhanced ambient trumpet merges easily with the pulsing bed drone of David's yidaki. Elsewhere Endean's woodwind contributions gently weave additional sound colours into the ‘Birrik Birrik’ mix.

While many contemporary projects strive to combine ancient and modern influences, this innovative and ethereal musical alliance actually achieves that lofty goal – with old cultural ground being respected, while new artistic ground is broken. Hand to Earth is a truly exquisite album.