- 1. Backyard Indian
 7:24 Jenny Thomas
- All kinds of music is played on radios in Australian backyards. This piece is an imagined mix of music merging across backyard fences. None of the members of AKIN have had to travel to be influenced by exotic music, it can all be heard here on this island populated by migrants from other lands and Aborigines, a people who continue the worlds oldest culture.
- 2. Pins and Needles 7:54 Jenny Thomas
- Sometimes music is an elusive thing - an ocean that laps at many shores yet exists as one entity. Our music is adrift upon this ocean. To perform this piece we all sit cross-legged in the traditional Indian style (except Jason, he sticks to the jumping around Balkan style). Unfortunately upon standing up afterwards we all suffer from pins and needles.
- 3. Remember to Breathe 10:11 Jenny Thomas
- This was meant to be Jenny's short piece on the album. She set out with good intentions to write a four minute piece in the Irish style but ended up with a ten minute exploration of the similarities between Persian and Irish violin. This meandering from one style to another often happens with our music, whether intentionally or just a slip of the fingers. Our hands feel the links between Irish rolls and Turkish mordents whilst our feet are tapping to a Middle Eastern beat. The next thing you know you have written a piece that sounds like a fusion of different cultures when all you thought you were doing was writing a simple Irish tune.
- 4. Reprise 1:23 Jenny Thomas/Chris Sprague
- Jenny said: "I really love that guitar line you play in Remember to Breathe -could we try repeating it with me improvising over the top?" Chris said: "Sure, why not" Engineer said: "Recording..."
- 5. Deep Digging Down Introduction 6:09
- 6. Deep Digging Down 12:10 Jenny Thomas/Glen Kniebeiss
- Two things were happening when the initial idea for this piece was written:
- A. Jenny was practicing a lot of Indian Karnatic violin
- B. Jason was digging a hole in the backyard for a pond
- Deep Digging Down is based on the South Indian varanam form with improvisations added to further explore the raga (Sankara Bhanam) and a few notes thrown in that are definitely not in the raga!
- 7. Bitsa Ruchenitsa 3:37 Jason Day
- Leaping from ruchenitsa rhythms (2+2+3) to the more conventional 6/8 and 4/4, the clarinet leads the other instruments on a hair raising dance. At first it may sound purely Balkan but due to the fact that Jason wrote this piece after playing a lot of Irish tin whistle a few Celtic nuances have crept in. As for the Klezma sounds... playing at all those barmitzvahs has left its mark!
- 8. Swoon 5:04 Jenny Thomas
- The first time we performed Swoon we had an audience that included an inquisitive possum who scuttled across a roof beam then stopped in the middle to consider the performance occurring beneath her. Consequently this piece was almost titled "The Possum Inquisition"! The main theme is a slower version of the melody from the second verse of Deep Digging Down.
- 9. The Lost Empire, F***ing Francis, The Pleasant Crescent 5:55 Jenny Thomas
- These three Irish reels are named after Jenny and Jason's house buying experience; they saw a house in Empire street, loved it and wanted to buy it, but the real estate agent went behind their back and sold it to his friend. The second tune is named after the real estate agent. This story has a happy ending however; they bought a house in "The Crescent".
- 10. Camel's Hump 5:36 Jason Day
- ... A yummy soup with Middle Eatern flavours, just like this piece. Camel's Hump was recorded live at the 1999 Folk Rhythm and Life Festival at Eldorado, Victoria.
|
