FIRST TASTE OF GURRUMUL’S UNCOMPROMISING MASTERPIECE REVEALED

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“This album is inspired by composers from the early baroque to Stravinsky, Arvo Part, Phillip Glass, Michael Nyman, Max Richter and many others.”

The final chapter in the story of Gurrumul, the highest selling Indigenous musician of all time and an Australian icon, will be written on April 13 with the release of ‘Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow)’. Today we reveal the astonishing ambition of the album for the first time with the track ‘Djolin (Musical Instrument)’ unveiling the amazing fusion of two grand traditions into one of the most ambitious projects in Australian music history.

Over four years in the making and completed just weeks before his passing in 2017, ‘Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow)’ is Gurrumul’s gift to the world, an astounding achievement of music, presenting traditional songs and harmonised chants from his traditional Yolngu life with dynamic and hypnotic orchestral arrangements in a blend of the highest forms of both his culture and our European orchestral culture. It’s a final message. A window into his supreme culture. A recording of an iconic artist at his creative peak, and a legacy that will not be surpassed.

“Last year we sat and listened to these recordings over and over again, from beginning to end and piece by piece, pulling them apart and putting them back together until all elements shone. We had finished the incredible process, preparing to release it and then we lost him,” said long-time musical collaborator and friend Michael Hohnen. “We had played many of the pieces live over the past few years of touring and planned how the pieces would work before we recorded them in the studio. He was immensely proud of what we achieved on this album and it is an emotional experience for all of us to present this final enormous chapter in his story with this musical statement.”