Traveller's Tales... ...the Album
New album recently released!
We are very proud to announce the release of our theatrical showpiece 'Traveller's Tales' in album form.
It features our our special brand of chamber folk and baroque music, with a highlight being a multi-faceted new composition by acclaimed Australian composer Padma Newsome (Clogs, The National), telling a tale of Danish colonial arrival in Australia...
'Dual Aura...tackle it all with vitality, affection and freshness. Their heightened sense of dialogue in Edwards’ Ecstatic Dances is nothing short of outstanding... A real delight is Newsome’s The Danes of Poowong East...moodily atmospheric and richly sonorous.'
- Graham Strahle, critic for The Australian
'Well-worked and beautifully executed...two very different musical cultures come together and merge...an album you really need to listen to.'
- Rootszone.dk
A story unfolds...
Welcome to Traveller’s Tales – a journey of discovery.
On this album you will hear the sounds of music as language – learning one language from another, finding voices in common to share joy and conversation. Speaking of the love of nature, the mystery of the unknown, and the loss of homeland.
The folk music of Scotland and the British Isles sets the scene as our wanderer from the South is met by a strange traveller from the North… who in turn reveals the musical tongue of their native Denmark.
Before long a common language is found – the music of the baroque, and from there ensues a journey together. But to where are they heading? A robin accompanies them on the road, now and then speaking its voice and at night entering their uncertain dreams…
First through Brittany, an encounter with an ancient Celtic culture, its folk music and a fantasia on its people and landscape.
And then further south, their travels spent in discussion and learning of the other – sometimes harmonious, sometimes in dispute. A dialogue, courtesy of Telemann.
Time away from one’s home is marked by longing, ‘hjemve’ – we hear a song for the ‘Spring Frost’, when the long Danish winter gives way to new life.
And then, our travellers reach an end to their journey – Australia.
Heat and vastness unsettling to a foreigner, but with moments of great stillness and beauty. The robin accompanies them still, met by a myriad of hidden voices in the bush.
Time is slow here. An unease speaks through the ancient land – the native culture tragically displaced. Work is hard and the land is tough, yet a new life beckons.
The fiddle laments, sings, dances. Ultimately solace is found in this place now, one brimming with life and vibrancy in the heat of the day.
Performers:
Monica Schmidt Andersen – recorders (all tracks)
Ben Dollman – violin / viola (all tracks)
Padma Newsome - Harmonium, Timples Canarios, Guitar, Keyboard (all Newsome tracks)
Sound engineering and mastering: Thomas Grubb www.manomusica.com
Mixes for Newsome tracks created by:
Padma Newsome www.padmanewsome.com
Art design: Karen De Nardi www.denardicreativedesign.com
Recorded: Move Studios, Melbourne, Australia, October 2018
Released: 2019 by Dual Aura and Gateway Music
Track listing
1 Black is the colour / When she came / Tullochgorum Traditional
2 Fisken ligger / Første brudestykke / Frederiks kontra Traditional
3 Scherzando / Vivace e Staccato From Sonata in G major TWV 40:111
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
4 Robin’s Dream 1: The Danes of Poowong East Padma Newsome (b.1961)
5 Hanter Drou / Scottische Trad arr Pierrick Lemou / Pierrick Lemou
6 II: The Miller’s Song
7 IV: Fountain Games From ‘A Breton Game’ Matteo Falloni (b.1969)
8 Robin’s Dream 2 : The Danes of Poowong East Padma Newsome
9 III: Affettuoso
10 IV: Vivace From Sonata a due TWV 40:104
Georg Philipp Telemann
11 Forårs frost (2018) Eskil Romme (b.1957)
12 Fairy Wren 1: The Danes of Poowong East
13 Puny Dart 1: The Danes of Poowong East
14 Robin’s Dream 3: The Danes of Poowong East
15 Charwork : The Danes of Poowong East Padma Newsome
16 St Martin’s Churchyard / The Musical Priest James Oswald (1710-1769) / Trad
17 Ecstatic Dance Ross Edwards (b.1943)
18 Puny Dart 2: The Danes of Poowong East Padma Newsome