Hand to Earth: ‘Ŋurru Wäŋa’

The latest album from Australian jazz quintet Hand to Earth is ‘Ŋurru Wäŋa’, pronounced Wooroo Wanga.

The album brings traditional music up to date with a collection of musicians from different backgrounds, birthplaces and musical approaches.

Daniel and David Wilfred describe themselves as Yolŋu song keepers and this project allows them to recontextualise their 40,000 year old song tradition. Joining together with 

Sunny Kim (vocals), Peter Knight (trumpet and electronics) and Aviva Endean (woodwind).

Adding to their number on tour with the UK’s own Shabaka, the ensemble is touring Ŋurru Wäŋa. Each tune on the album and live performances has special meaning and is brought up to date in a combination of styles and arrangements.

The title track of Ŋurru Wäŋa is in two parts, with Sunny Kim reciting Korean poet Yoon Dong Ju’s poem Another Home while Daniel Wilfred sings in the Wäglilak language. The juxtaposition of the two languages, alongside music that is both ethereal and deeply rooted in a wide range of influences both traditional and more modern jazz.

Trumpeter and producer Peter Knight says: “Daniel’s song cycle traces the flight of the birds, the Mäḏawk and Wäk Wäk. It describes the seasons, and the Stringybark tree, Gaḏayka, that supplies the bark for painting, and the wood for the bilma (clapping sticks). 

With the exception of The Crow, which was recorded in New York, these songs landed in single takes in one session recording just the voice, bilma, and yidaki with some synth drones and other materials. The rest of the sounds came later in separate iterative recording sessions, in which the  settings for the songs were developed through spontaneous layering and rubbing back.”

Switching off the outside world and listening to the deeply meaningful and evocative tunes on Ŋurru Wäŋa transports the listener to an entrancing new world that combines familiar and new music and language.