Shoalhaven cd - music & nature sounds

The Shoalhaven cd; music and nature sounds from a special Australian place.Wonderful sights and nature sounds have inspired the composition of the new music for this recording.

The Shoalhaven district has been long asociated with indigenous peoples, artists, writers and musicians, and is located 169km south of Sydney, Australia ..

It is the site of the 'Bundanon' property - once aboriginal homelands, later a farm (hence the Scots name), still later passing to the Boyd family of artists
Bundanon was bequeathed to the state for use as an 'arts residence' in the mid 1990s

I arrived there in December 2001 for a three month stay ..

'Shoalhaven' is laid out as a 'trip', a walk through a rain forest, around rock escarpments, into hidden magic places and open cow paddocks, around the old 'bundanon' homestead, close to night-time dams ..

You may hear a 30 second snippet of all the tracks - just by clicking the (play) button; click it again to stop the track
Several of the tracks are available as full track downloads - just click the 'track download' signs

1 .. Good morning kookaburras - dawn in a new place - 4:21

2 .. Parroting - morning atmosphere and colour, birds chatting - 2:02

3 .. Dance for the disappeared - explore, remnantss, no people - 3:00

4 .. Here, we are - reflective morning, mud-larks, cows, butcher birds - 11:27

5 .. Things are good, but a walk is better - new senses, 'scissor grinder' bird - 3:15

6 .. The tortoise taught us - rock 'elders' patiently watching & waiting - 6:07

7 .. Aloud allowed - afternoon, yellow tail black cockatoos arrive - 3:07

8 .. Stumblewarm - before storm afternoon, acoustic space - 4:20

9 .. Rain storm - thunder & rain, tin roof, water tanks - 5:40

10.. Feathering our own nests - dawn, renewing, bower birds - 4:30 (available as track download)

11.. Avant garden party - layered rain forest, wrens, whip bird - 8:28 (available as track download)

12.. Atmospherix - island evening, wind in casuarina trees - 5:19

13.. Dance for the night frog - space defined by frogs & crickets - 4:27 (available as track download)

14.. At the end of the day - gate shuts - 0:41

'Shoalhaven' is 67 minutes long

Purchase Shoalhaven

The story:

down a dirt track of subtly changing colours and trees, the pathway cuts a fringe between forest and green cow paddocks. birds fly out and over, circle, stop and talk.
many birds - kookaburras, ravens, magpies, mudlark, wrens, bower birds, butcher birds, wagtails, parrots, goshawks like light shifters

bundanon lies beyond a gate of rock; even the track winds around this old fella

cut off, 150 years of recent building and business have moved away into memory, into ghosts and voices, areas of presence. the subtle nature of australia seems to constantly elude our white perception and understanding, yet the remnants of people, voices and spirits, white and black, drift amongst the escarpments, trail one up the bush walks, follow into the natural ampitheatre of rock and tree and sound

this resonance of space is within and yet surrounds us, hovering, manifesting itself through earth and spirit, leading us toward a knowledge of country and ourselves

the country is brooding, waiting, needing the old songs to re-awaken for it to become whole and relevant again.

how to make sense of this?
of country, of spirit how do we hear the stories - without signposts, wisdom, knowledge or elders?

yet the stories can reveal themselves. just as rocks, slowly eroded by wind and water, expose their layers to reveal older stories, new stories are layered upon them

hear then the rock story, the bird stories, the story of aspect and space - as they reveal some of themselves in this celebration of a special place

Di Johnson

'Shoalhaven' is available in the USA through cdbaby - click here

More about 'bundanon' ? click here

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