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Release Date: 26-10-1998
Label: Celestial Harmonies
Catalog Number: 13096-2
Barcode: 13711309621
Musical Style: Aboriginal
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali Doo [05:31] | 6 | Kuranda Warrior [03:34] |
| 2 | Message Stick [04:41] | 7 | Leprechaun Corroboree [04:30] |
| 3 | Undara's Lava Tube [04:43] | 8 | Frenzy [02:55] |
| 4 | Dreampipe Rhapsody [04:43] | 9 | New Beginning [11:49] |
| 5 | Laura's Rhapsody [07:51] | ||
Description:
Rainbow Serpent is one of the most important recordings of Australian Aboriginal music ever made. David Hudson, master of the Aboriginal instrument known as the didgeridoo, combines with long–time collaborator and producer, Steve Roach, to create music from a 50,000 year tradition which maintains its heart and soul in the setting of a modern digital recording studio. Traditionally, the didgeridoo is capable of only one note, although numerous overtones of that note can be brought out and a wide variety of blowing techniques can sharply change the sound. In Rainbow Serpent, Hudson uses multiple didgeridoos, with simple percussion and some of Steve Roach's subtle digital processing, to create a unique recording that blends the most ancient musical sounds with the latest hi–tech sound devices. Rainbow Serpent is clearly rooted in the Aboriginal tradition. Hudson uses the traditional technique of circular breathing to keep the flow of music continuous and to maintain its meditative state. In this technique, the player forces air out of his mouth while breathing in through the nose. The sound is punctuated by a repertoire of traditional grunts and cries, representing different animal spirits. This album is also the work of a contemporary musician and composer. Hudson uses original calls and vocalizing techniques to striking effect on Laura's Festival. Eerie, deep spatial effects are created by the combination of didgeridoo and digital reverb on Undara's Lava Tube; and in Leprechaun Corroboree, Hudson uses Celtic sounding percussion patterns as accompaniment. Hudson's concluding piece is a spacey tour–de–force called New Beginning. Ringing harmonics, sweeping arcs of didgeridoos and lonely bush sounds from Queensland, Australia, all inhabit the vast inner space of Steve Roach's digital studio environment. Rainbow Serpent is not a relic of ancient history, but a new Aboriginal music for the late 20th Century.
Biography:
Australian Aboriginal artist David Hudson is a world–renowned pioneer of the art of the didjeridu. A member of the Tjapukai tribe in Kuranda, northern Queensland, he mastered the didjeridu and interpretive dances of his tribe at an early age. Armed with a profound understanding of the didjeridu, he possesses an exceptional talent of spontaneously creating/performing multi–leveled compositions, as evidenced in his first solo recording, the highly acclaimed Woolunda: Ten Solos for Didgeridoo. It is regarded by many experts as a ground–breaking experiment in the creative possibilities of the didjeridu. Known primarily for his traditional styles and use of the traditional technique of circular breathing, Hudson is credited for taking the art form to a new level through an innovative combination of extended techniques and modern compositional ideas. So much so, his inventive use of voice, space and explosive blasts of sound have sometimes more in common with 20th century avant–garde music than ancestral Aboriginal music. Teamed with longtime collaborator and producer Steve Roach, the two have written an array of seamlessly organic compositions, creating Hudson's most subterranean and textural release to date. Hudson features various self–made didjeridus, click sticks and boomerang clapsticks. Roach accompanies with assorted percussion and rocks and provides a constant flow of dreamtime soundworlds.
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