Listen to the bassist’s new album for International Anthem while reading a brilliant Tiffany Ng essay on curation. “As we grow accustomed to the convenience of shuffling a […]
Premiere: Singing Dust – Desert Chant (Efficient Space & Fresh Hold)
The newly formed Fresh Hold imprint teams up with fellow Melbourne-based label Efficient Space to present a long-lost jazz grail.
Michael Kucyk’s always reliable Efficient Space has teamed up with Fresh Hold, a new imprint spearheaded by a promising pair of archivists, to release a mysterious and deeply enchanting Australian jazz grail. Destined for obscurity, Singing Dust by Queensland-based pianist Robert Welsh was originally privately pressed in 1986 on Cleopatra Records and fuses Indian devotional song, the piano stylings of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, and atmospheric 80’s jazz fusion. The end result is a wholly unique combination that little resembles anything else released at the time.
Like many experimental players, Welsh took cues outside the realm of music. The seven compositions that make up Singing Dust all accompany Ghazal devotional poems of the Middle East translated by Francis Brabazon, the Australian poet and member of spiritual master Meher Baba’s mandali. In essence, Singing Dust is a beautiful work of mystical 80’s fusion that widely stands apart due to its bright searing light of truth, love, and austerity.
We’re excited to premiere the transcendent closing track “Desert Chant,” a slowly enveloping synthesizer journey driven by steady hypnotic hand drum rhythms and angelic chants that somehow leaves you both grounded and lost in orbit.
Singing Dust is out on vinyl and digital formats August 20th and can be preordered here: Efficient Space and Fresh Hold.
Efficient Space: https://efficientspace.bandcamp.com/music
Fresh Hold: https://elationsfreshhold.bandcamp.com/