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WEST PAPUA - Sound of the Morning Star
Electronics, blended with the heart and soul of an oppressed people
HOW THE PROJECT HAPPENED
In late 2002 whilst organising acts for the Morning Star Concert for West Papua, Melbourne musician David Bridie hit on the idea of two 'tie-in' projects - a book and a CD.
But the CD would not be a simple concert recording... more like a tropical excursion, an album of Papuan field recordings and soundscapes mixed and enhanced by Bridie and several other talented producers.
The raw materials for the project were fascinating and varied... and many were certainly raw - unlabelled cassettes of songs given to Bridie by Papuan-in-exile Jacob Rumbiak. Other songs came from journalist Ben Bohane; from a radio documentary by New Guinea-born Mark Worth aired on the ABC, Man of the Morning Star; and from the CD Muo Reme containing vintage 1950s recordings of West Papuan vocals.
Bridie sent all of this – including his own location recordings from visits to PNG – to high profile electronic remix artists including Paul Mac, Nick Littlemore, Nicole Skeltys of B(i)ftek and David Thrussell of Snog. The brief: to create something special for a West Papua fundraising CD.
The result is an engrossing work that's culturally relevant to ears accustomed to this century's electronica - with underlying roots in the sounds emanating from deep within the soul of a quietly proud people who through no fault of their own are in grave threat of extinction.
“It wasn’t until sitting in the studio trying to sing along to this track as I pieced it together, that it became clear just how completely unique the voices of the West Papuan people are. It isn’t even so much their sweeping range — which in itself is astonishing — it is the tone, a strange harmonic clash of time and tradition that sums all the turmoil and suffering of West Papua into a powerful and almost physical force. It is the voice of a Nation, complete and invincible.” - Ben Frost.
WEST PAPUAN AWARENESS
Despite Australia's close proximity to West Papua and PNG, many Australians remain totally ignorant of its wonders. But Papua - particularly the Indonesian-occupied West Papua - is gaining attention, bit by bit, mainly through unexpected events such as the arrival in Australia by outrigger longboat of 43 West Papuan asylum seekers in January this year.
With public awareness of West Papua firmly on the increase, Sound of the Morning Star is now even more fascinating than when first released in 2003.
And, for the first time, Sound of the Morning Star is free of additional software and encoding - it can now be played trouble free in any CD player or hard drive.
INDONESIAN MILITARY KILLS STAR
In the West, popular music culture is very much a given. It's our right, we don't give it a second thought.
So, how would it feel if a popular artist was arrested and later killed by government agents... for promoting popular culture? Inconceivable in our society... but in 1984 that was the fate of West Papua's brilliant musician and anthropologist Arnold Ap.
Had Ap been British, American or Australian, he would have been considered a 'superstar'. His recordings filled the airwaves, cassettes of his band Mambesak were everywhere. He was considered highly spiritual and pure. Through his other role - as curator of Jayapura's Cenderwaseh University museum - his work extended way beyond his own recording. He saw it as his destiny to preserve the aural history of his own culture, which he believed was under threat.
In West Papua, any display or promotion of indigenous pride (including performance of traditional songs or flying the Morning Star flag) is considered an act of treason by the Indonesian governing forces, punishable by imprisonment or death. The Indonesian military in West Papua believed Ap to be a sympathiser of the OPM, their direct opposition. He was therefore a threat. And he was killed.
Sound of the Morning Star is inspired by and dedicated to Ap's work and memory. His execution robbed the West Papuan people of possibly hundreds more songs of hope. But his legacy is a great many songs that capture the essence of his people's struggle against oppression in their own land, as well as his invaluable and tireless preservation work at the museum, collecting and cataloguing the sounds of West Papua - its traditional music and culture.
In the spirit of Arnold Ap, Sound of the Morning Star seeks to embrace and revere the heritage and spirit of this rich, treacherous country.
"I appreciate the heart and soul all [the artists] put into their creations. As much as the CD is valuable for social justice concerns, it stands up for itself artistically. The blend of organic natural sounds with analogue glitch and filtered noises is unique and finely crafted…And whilst it is a compilation of contributions from a variety of cutting edge artists, it blends and flows as if made by the one artist." - David Bridie.
*Painstaking efforts were made to trace the origin of every piece of music and recording used on this album. In all cases, remuneration was given either to the original composers or, in accordance with local customs, to the village Chiefs.
Produced by David Bridie
Mastered by Francois Tetaz at moose Mastering
CD ARTWORK DESIGN Russel Bradley
Photographs Ben Bohane and Liz Thompson from the book ‘”WEST PAPUA: FOLLOW THE MORNING STAR”
Soundscapes:
1. Bird of Paradise - Paulmac
2. The Slow Hunt - (Iau) B(i)ftek
3. Silence the Chief - Drum Drum/David Bridie
4. A Woman That is Different From All Other Women - Frost
5. Funeral For a Fulsome Life (Wane) - Darren Steffan
6. Wake - Kelly HPF
7. Double Trouble - David Bridie
8. Cassowary (Wake) - High Pass Filter
9. Cry Our Ancestors (Kajob) - Tim Cole
10. Relic (An Old Song From Demta) - Darren Steffan
11. Overtaken By a Storm - Snog
12. Hurricane - Pnau
13. Remembrance Day Morning Star - David Bridie
14. Epilogue
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