Djarimirri: Child of the Rainbow

Beautiful and very different

I am embarrassed to admit I didn't know Gurrumul, and I live in Australia.

Apparently Dr. G Yunupiŋu was a blind Yolŋu man from Elcho Island in Arnhem Land, and his voice is unlike anything I have ever heard. A countertenor of extraordinary purity and emotional directness that crosses every language barrier without effort. The are songs in Yolŋu languages, drawing from a living ceremonial tradition tens of thousands of years old, and none of that distance matters for a single second.

Djarimirri is his final album, completed posthumously with orchestral arrangements by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. That combination could easily have gone wrong. A Western orchestral frame imposed on something sacred and ancient. It doesn't. The orchestra and the tradition speak to each other as equals, and the result is something genuinely unrepeatable.

I have heard a lot of music by First Nations Australians and much of it has moved me. But the combination here of voice, song, emotion, ritual, and orchestra is next level. This is complete art made at the intersection of two worlds, diminishing neither.

A full five stars, and a reminder to pay closer attention to what's happening in your own backyard.

Bach, Motzart, Gurrumul. The greatest classical composers of all time. Djarimirri has immediately become my new favorite album. The brass, the movement, the overwhelming emotion, perfection. The first two tracks strike a resonant chord that the rest of the album calmly sustains. I'm in love.

Super cool pick! Between showcasing an aborigial artist, and the orchestral arrangements of the thing, it's hitting a huge density of music that the original list gave short shrift to

April 10, 2025

wa wa wee wa