Australian expat Mark Kluzek‘s The Doomed Bird of Providence has been producing thoughtful, melancholy travelogues for the weary of heart for the best part of ten years. These often focus on colonial times in his native Oz, but on Rumbling Clouds of War Hover Over Us, the journey described is even more personal to Mark and much closer to home for us.
In four separate vignettes, this twenty-minute piece describes the 1939 journey of Mark’s grandfather Wladysław from his native Poland across Europe to its eventual conclusion in Britain, managing to evade the long arm of Nazism and the horrors that that entailed.
The Doomed Bird’s seven-piece line-up is an eclectic mix of musicians and instruments, including accordion, ukulele and glockenspiel that goes far beyond your standard rock-based fare, and into far more cinematic and descriptive realms. The torpid melancholy of minor chord piano opens the suite and its almost waltz-like demeanour echoes the foot-dragging feeling of having to pack up and vanish overnight with all the doubt and upheaval that that would entail. Joolie Wood‘s violin circles slowly and wearily, with the glockenspiel a touch of light in a desperate situation.
The final section on crossing from France to Britain is sturdily propelled by the percussion and feels far more positive, with recognition dawning of the nightmare that has passed. Joolie’s violin takes precedence here, but you really feel the group pulling together to draw the story to a relatively happy conclusion. You can almost picture couples swinging around a café to this piece as they continue with their lives while the threat gathers across the channel. It is beautifully written by Mark and really sweetly played by the ensemble, and I think it has done them proud, both grandfather and grandson.
-Mr Olivetti-
