Beloved Australian ensemble Hand To Earth will release their album Ŋurru Wäŋa (pronounced Wooroo Wanga) via Room40 on 22nd August. Vocalists Daniel Wilfred and Sunny Kim form the heart of Hand To Earth, which has quickly developed an international reputation as one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary music ensembles. The quintet has released two albums, which have won international praise including a 2022 ARIA AWARD nomination, and performed in some of the most prestigious venues and festivals in the world including at the iconic Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Lincoln Centre New York, Jeonju International Sori Festival (Korea), Luxembourg Philharmonie, and Vancouver Jazz Festival.
Daniel sings in language, and is the keeper of Yolngu Manikay (songs) from North East Arnhem Land that can be traced back for over 60,000 years. His is the oldest continuously practised music tradition in the world. Sunny sings in English and Korean intoning gestures that invoke raw elemental forces. Together they sing of the stars, of fire, and of the cooling rain against the drone of David Wilfred’s yidaki (didgeridoo) and atmospheres created by trumpeter and sound artist, Peter Knight, and clarinetist Aviva Endean who draw on the minimalism of Brian Eno and Jon Hassell to create a bed for these beautifully contrasting voices.
Ahead of the album’s release we asked the band about some of their musical influences…
Lonely Boys – The Hunter EP
Daniel Wilfred (voice, bilma):
This song has special meaning about (traditional) hunting. It has a story. A story for you, for young people, about the animals, the fish… which ones you can hunt up in Northern Territory, near my Country, near Ngukurr (Daniel’s home in very remote Arnhem Land in northern Australia). These are my relatives singing this song: Benjamin Wilfred, Ambrose Daniels, and a famous singer from Ngukurr who passed away in 2018 (who can’t be named for cultural reasons). Lonely Boys were huge in Northern Territory especially in remote communities singing in their language (Wägilak) and they inspired lots of young musicians to write their songs and sing about their culture and country. We went to hear them play a lot and heard them together with Hand to Earth at Barunga Festival in 2018.
Jon Hassell – Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism
Peter Knight (trumpet, electronics, synthesisers, bass guitar):
When I first heard this album my concept of the trumpet was mostly shaped by the jazz greats especially Lee Morgan, Miles Davis, and Kenny Wheeler. Jon Hassell completely reconfigured this conception and was a big part of setting my musical path in a different direction. Revisiting Magic Realism I am reminded of the surprise and delight of that first listening and it still sounds so shockingly fresh and strong. This album, released in 1983, and Hassell’s entire oeuvre has had a huge influence on generations of musicians but somehow his work also stands on its own. In recent years I have been consciously working on interrogating his influence in my own practice and thinking a lot about how he used technology – about the spirit of curiosity that produced these sounds and about how to apply this to current technologies in combination with hardware from that era.
The Magic I.D. – I’m So Awake / Sleepless I Feel
Aviva Endean (clarinets, winds, electronics):
I’ve been listening to this album for over a decade and still love it. I love the way that textural/experimental playing weaves in and out of song forms. When I first heard this, it was inspiring for me to hear the two clarinets used not only as melodic instruments, but also as chordal and textural elements embedded in the songs. I think that has been quite influential for me, as my playing is often more about creating textures and layers on a track, rather than the more traditional role a wind instrument plays of taking a solo or providing melodic content. Micheal Tieke and Kai Fagascinski (the two clarinet players in the Magic ID) also have great duo called The International Nothing also well worth checking out!
