UNBROKEN - Track by Track
1. Unbroken (Lake Pedder)
This track expresses the beauty and resilience of Nature, in this case of the flooded Lake Pedder in Tasmania. The next 10 years will be the UN Decade of Ecological Restoration. "Unbroken" was written for and used as the soundtrack for a video of historic film and stills that remind us some things are too vital to be lost. The video is easily found on this website.
2. Bapa (Grief has overtaken me)
The theme running through “Unbroken” is of shadows, acknowledging people who shaped many of these songs. Steve saw Dr Yunupingu (Gurrumul) live many times, openly weeping at this tribute from Gurrumul to his father. Respectfully, Steve’s arrangement of "Bapa" offers gentle shadows of acoustic guitar by Heath Cullen as if Gurrumul is playing too (which he is in Steve’s heart).
3. Katie Kingston (Where is she?)
This is a slower and more expressive solo piano version of that found on “Winter Night At Liffey” EP (with Bob Brown) with fuller score. This time the question is almost plaintive.
4. Waltz (For Oma)
This began as an improvised duet with my grandson, trying a waltz beat via Roland percussion for the very first time - when we finished I asked what it was called and he replied “It’s for Oma” (his Dutch grandmother / my partner).
5. Winter Night (It’s Snowing)
Already done on the Liffey EP, but full solo piano version presented here, with faint imprint of an harmonium (Heath), hinting at Bob Brown playing his Alexandre et Fils (Rue Richelieu, Paris) pedal organ in the old house “Oura Oura”, at Liffey, Tasmania.
6. Barrumungu (Print song)
A tryptich based on artwork from the print centre at Yirrkala in the Northern Territory where I spent some time in 2012. The clap sticks provide a ‘shadow effect’, to pay tribute to First Australians and the honour of imagining this music on their land, as well as to Balang (Tom E Lewis) who gifted the clap sticks to me at the end of a special few days with him. The sheet music is on the “Music” page of this website.
7. Heaven’s Rain (Utrecht)
It was Christmas day, it was snowing, and we were walking along the ‘old canal’ in Utrecht as church bells rang out all around us... thus the over-dubbed piano chime-like touches by Heath (echoing the “high notes” my grandchild plays when we improvise duets).
8. Crazily Good (Sounds he’s heard)
A friend went along to a concert to see someone famous (Joe Henry) at the old Basement venue in Sydney and came away raving about the support act being ‘crazily good’.. Heath is - they both are!
9. In Balfour Street (A passing rain)
Another solo piano version of one already on the “Liffey” EP. The words to the poem are about the meaning (if any is ever discernible) of life so it is deliberately hymn-like. But when I think of those houses in Balfour Street, Launceston, they also reflect the solidity and calm of someone who makes sure the storms in one’s life are only ever passing rain.
10. The Sings (And the songs)
Another song arising from improvised duets with my grandchild and the great title he gave them.
11. Circling (Around us)
"Circling (Around us)" expresses the fact that, from the 1st second of our lives, many positive and negative things circle around us - it is part of being human. The song is quite upbeat in that people, other species, Nature itself, find ways to be resilient about the negative, and joyful about the positive things: seize the day and LIVE!
12. Lonely Place (Without you)
It was 1973, a late Friday evening. She had to go home. I was left almost the last person there (“empty chairs and tables”), knowing (painfully) I wouldn’t see her again ’til the following week, thinking, “we should never leave each other”).
13. Yathiny (Sea urchins)
Based on another print from Yirrkala, by Ruby Djikerra Alderton, expressing how sea urchins in Arnhem Land bounce around on top of the waves ’til they flop on the beach. Heath and Mick insisted I play this as an improvisation which I was reluctant to attempt, but I’m glad they did.
14. Cradle Mountain (Lullaby)
Another one I nearly didn’t record and left ’til last (but people tell me is their favourite so, again, I’m glad I did). It foreshadows a hoped-for second CD with Bob Brown reading his remaining 10 poems from his “In Balfour Street” (2010) collection over my music. There’s multiple ways into the metaphor: ’cradle’ being the name of the location, the shape of the geology, and being cradled to sleep (perhaps everlasting sleep).
