33/50: Spinifex Gum (2019)
Available worldwide from 5th Oct to 5th Nov 2023.
The voices of Marliya from Gondwana Choirs – young Indigenous women singing in English and Yindjibarndi – come together with The Cat Empire’s Felix Riebl and special guests Emma Donovan, Peter Garrett and Briggs for a powerful collaboration of voice, sound, movement and change, in musical snapshots of life in the Pilbara, north Western Australia.
Commissioned to write a song cycle for the choir, Felix Riebl spent several years visiting the Pilbara to build relationships and gather stories. He and co-creator Ollie McGill went on to write the album Spinifex Gum about the region’s local tales and characters, true stories of racism and injustice, and the legacies of colonisation with music production that’s staunchly modern, built from found sound samples of the Pilbara – rustling leaves, bouncing basketballs and chugging trains. (Stream Premiere)