The Doomed Bird Of Providence – A Flight Across Arnhem Land

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It is always heartening to see a new release from Mark Kluzek‘s Doomed Bird Of Providence, because you know that something of historical significance will have piqued his interest and then has prompted him to gather around friends and collaborators to turn it into some sweeping musical extravaganza.

This time around, The Doomed Bird consists of eleven musicians plus the fantastic artwork of Judi Dransfield Kuepper and the mastering skills of Mark Beazley, and between them they have produced something incredibly evocative.

It is a work of a questing and unique mind, taking unresolved and mysterious newspaper stories from 1920s and 1930s Australia and giving them a fresh airing, exposing them to the light after all these years. Mark’s verbatim delivery is perfect and the collective closely shadows him, hitting the right nerve between harshness and melancholy. Accordion, melodica, ukulele and strings waver in the heat haze somewhere between salted sea shanty and a dusty Australian bar replete with travelling Eastern European circus musicians, such is the ground they cover over these sixteen beautifully realised vignettes.

I really miss The Black Heart Procession and there is something of their brand of minor-key, accordion-led melancholy that infuses some of the tracks here. With Mark’s harsh outback bark and titles like “Business Man Found Dead In A Shop At Mildura” and “Vicarage Murder The Perfect Crime”, A Flight Across Arnhem Land inhabits its own world, highlighting shabby goings-on and nefarious deeds with an incredible charm. You can almost taste the dust swirling under the shop awning as the door opens and the body is found, likewise the queasy swirl of the ocean in “Another Grim Sea Collision Has Occurred”.

With its plodding melodica and evocative tone, “A Skeleton Found In A Limestone Cave”, finds the listener visualising that grim discovery, the sad news leaking out through a pale, sun-bleached, one-horse town, while the yearning in Mark’s voice that inhabits “Clarence St Residential” suits perfectly the lonely sweep of the irresistible rhythm.

Things look skyward as the album progresses and the lofty reach of “The Lost Airmen” highlighting Simon Finn‘s banjolin leads into the heady clear blue of “Ghost Plane Over Lithgow”, a dream of a track that loses the listener in cloud-strewn skies, Katie English‘s glockenspiel counting out the seconds as the wraith passes over. When the album ends, you just want to start it over again, picking at the details, marvelling at the complexity and pondering over these forgotten tales.

A Flight Across Arnhem Land is an essential listen because it moves you in an unexpected and unlikely way; plus the group is so good. Another roaring success for Mark and I can think of nothing better for you to do than buy this and enable his next flight of fancy to take to the skies.

-Mr Olivetti-