Description
KIANGARDARUP – An original piece for violin, wooden flute, cello and bouzouki, inspired by the Torbay Inlet in Western Australia Great Southern region.
Robert Zielinski – Kiangardarup
CD review by Tony Smith
TN2584-91 – $30
The 20 tracks on this 2024 album fall into two sections. Dawn to Dusk comprises 8 tunes, while Dusk to Dawn has 11, and track 20, ‘A New Dawn’, is listed as a ‘bonus’.
All tunes were composed by Robert Zielinski, but Manuela Centanni co-wrote ‘Sandbank’.
Zielinski and Centanni collaborated on the CD’s artwork, while Centanni contributes some clear, bright, ethereal flute.
Zielinski made his violin at Orbay in 2018 and supplements this with some fine tin whistle and bouzouki.
In the same year, Chris Norman made Centanni’s flute in Nova Scotia, Canada, from African blackwood.
Other instrumentalists contributing to this very accomplished album include Ken Hayward on Didgeridoo in ‘A New Dawn’.
The instrument was gifted by Ken’s uncle Brian from Umgari in the Kimberley who introduced the instrument to Nyangar boodja in the 1960s.
Melinda Forsythe adds her beautiful cello made in 1770 by luthier Giovanni Battista Guadagnini and sons.
Jim Green plays a bouzouki made in 1973 by Stefan Sobell.
It is a welcome addition to the notes when musicians describe their instruments.
The sleeve notes are fine, featuring photographs of the vegetation and native animals.
The cover photograph of Zielinski playing on a shoreline is especially warm.
While ‘Donegal’ is the only track with a direct reference, Irish influence is strong throughout.
Each instrumentalist has studied Irish music and played it in various contexts.
Zielinski spent some years in Ireland learning from acknowledged experts, and they would no doubt nod their heads to hear the skilful way in which he has brought the music home to Western Australia.
A pleasant surprise is the way in which birds add their carolling voices between some tracks.
Zielinski organised the pitch at A=433 rather than the standard A=440 in order to fit in with birdsong.
A family of happy magpies outside my window certainly approved.
This album is driven by Zielinski’s response to the natural environment.
He notes the special acoustics provided by the reflective surface of the still Torbay Inlet and explains that he had to replace his bridge on the violin often because the damp air warped the maple.
Sometimes the music sounds pared back and the flute seems as reedy and ethereal as the shakuhachi, while the pizzicato on the strings is suggestive of koto or shamisen.
When Zielinski’s music is so close to nature, it is no surprise that it sometimes sounds almost Japanese.
In an album of a high standard throughout, it is difficult to identify outstanding tracks except by personal appeal.
For me, the ‘Minang Moon Lullaby’ is worthy of mention.
The ‘day’ tracks include ‘Season of Youth’, Great Southern Raining’, ‘Rain’, ‘The White Bird’, ‘Sandbank’ and ‘The Dragonfly’.
On the ‘night’ theme are ‘Twilight’, ‘The Invite’, ‘Blue Flower’, ‘High Ridge Track’, ‘Silky Water’, ‘Sitting’, ‘Holes in the Blanket’, ‘Dreaming’, ‘In Sight of Home’ and ‘Campfire’.
Zielinski dedicates a poem to ‘Kiangardarup’.
He speaks of the trees: ‘It was to them I played on/ back breaking and sweet/ their gnarly canopies/ Nourishing my white skin/ It was them that listened/ to a bow on a string, arched wood’.
Amazingly, Zielinski composed these stunning tunes without being able to write music.
Instead, he made hundreds of recordings until they were perfected.
As a ‘traditional’ musician, he operates by ear.
We learn something of his composing skill from his camp fire side comment: ‘I imagined the piece in four layers, with the fiddle as the main storyteller on a journey through country.
‘The flute is high up in the sky and an answer to the fiddle, like the call and answer in the wild.
‘The bouzouki describes the surface of the water and the cello under the wetlands and sand’.
Robert Zielinski is a humble man and takes no-one for granted.
He thanks many people for the production of this CD, from Manuela to engineer Lee Buddle and even lists numerous birds of the local area.
In the final analysis however, it is we who should thank this dedicated composer and fiddle player for such pure listening pleasure.
Ed. Robert Zielinski has two albums for sale on the Trad&Now website, both of which have been uploaded to Trad&Now Live! and can be heard on that radio streaming service from time to time, but particularly during the recent arrivals segment which airs from 12noon to 1 pm daily.
