CROSS+HATCH - DIDJERIDU+PERCUSSION

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Release Date: 25-01-1998

Label: Celestial Harmonies

Catalog Number: 15028-2

Barcode: 13711502824

Musical Style: Aboriginal

Description:

Cross-Hatch is the second CD collaboration between Alan Dargin and Michael Atherton, following their first release Bloodwood, an unedited, real–time performance aimed at articulating complex patterns. Cross-Hatch pursues Dargin's and Atherton's interest in exploring the studio as a space for improvised duets and multi–instrumental pieces. Thematically, the landscape of Australia remains a source of inspiration, as well as the sounds of multicultural, urban Australian country which supports cultural diversity as a matter of government policy. It's not surprising that such a rich musical environment should influence the artists musical ideas. Pieces such as Afrodidj and Crossings have grown out of a passion for Afro-Caribbean musics. Other influences can be heard in Ketuk, an improvisation mixing didjeridu with Pejogedan gamelan instruments. Additional tracks such as Sunshower have been assisted by the high standard of instrument making in Australia. In this case, a hand–crafted guitar is combined with a rare didjeridu from Oenpelli, Arnhem land. Gingjunggang (Kununurra language, Western Australia), which completes the recording, takes its title from one of the many known words for didjeridu. A delicious treat for didj lovers, this is an continuous impromptu piece (nearly 16 minutes long) by Dargin, recorded without interruption, exploring different tempi and changes of texture, as if to reflect the daily life cycle of the bush. In addition, two tracks are reissued from the Bloodwood album (which is no longer available) including Storm Warning, an essay conjuring the vast and sometimes foreboding natural phenomena of tropical Australia, for some a frontier of paradoxical beauty, both delicate and jangling in its vastness.

Biography:

The indigenous Australian artists represented on this compilation are at the vanguard of didjeridu playing, each with an identifiable style and seemingly endless capacity for invention. A cultural ambassador for Australia, world renowned didjeridu master Alan Dargin learned to play the didj at the age of five. Taught by his grandfather, he learned on a didj made from a now extinct species of bloodwood tree, a eucalyptus which bleeds red sap when cut. He has played with orchestras, jazz groups and techno musicians. Alan is also an actor. One of his goals is to make the didjeridu a respected and understood instrument on the world stage, encouraging audiences to appreciate the didjeridu as having both a sacred and a secular role in indigenous Australian music. Mark Atkins, a descendant of the Yamitji people, is well–known though-out Australia as a storyteller, composer, songwriter and painter, as well as a masterful didjeridu player. Matthew Doyle is of Aboriginal/Irish descent to the Yuwalarai people and has been adopted into traditional families in the Northern Territory and Queensland. His innovative intermingling of animal noises, rhythmic cries and driving didjeridu can be heard on Lyrebird. David Hudson, a member of the Tjapukai people, has a profound understanding of the didjeridu as demonstrated on his recordings Rainbow Serpent and the highly acclaimed ground–breaking experiment in the creative possibilities, Woolunda: Ten Solos for Didgeridoo .

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