“…Gyan has certainly evolved over the last decade. She is now a
hugely gifted composer and a very fine singer in the “female sensitive”
mode. Her decision to take 18 of Michael Leunig’s “poem-drawings
and turn them into songs is inspired… The result is a genuinely great
and original Australian album that Leunig admirers will prize”.
Bruce Elder, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“…with range, technique and tonal sensitivity, Gyan matches Leunigs
poems with equally fractured beauty in what could be described as chamber folk
or symphonic sketches… Billie holiday and Lucinda Williams would approve”
Lesley Sly, SOUND AND IMAGE MAG
“…Billy the Rabbit is a magical and unique journey through the
mind of a gentle genius told from the voice of a beautiful and talented singer
and is perhaps the most delicate and appropriate partnership between any two
unique Australian artists.”
Shelly Blake, THE PROGRAM
“…Gyan’s vocals are melancholic, shadowy and even a little
eerie, a little reminiscent of Portishead’s Beth Gibbons. The album is
certainly a beautiful listen…”
Brooke Robinson, THE BRAG
“…This beautifully crafted CD is something you’ll want in
your collection. Delicately made, It’s an exquisite package. Buy one.
No buy two.. It’s the ultimate gift”
Mandy Nolan, SEVEN
The work of Michael Leunig has become interwoven with contemporary Australian culture, highlighted even more with his duck included in the recent opening of the Commonwealth Games. His words have been performed with music before on a collaboration with Neil Finn and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Leunig’s poetry presented here continues his simple, yet never simplistic cartoons, renowned for his off beat observations of life, politics and the world.
This collaboration with Geelong-born musician Gyan - upon her return to Australia after a successful decade abroad in both London and Los Angeles - collects 18 of Leunig’s short poems together and infuses them with finely crafted melodies. The songs shift between a Waifs laidback sound and a more elaborate Sufjan Stevens vibe with guitars, gentle pianos, organs, melodic horns and small string sections working together.
Gyan works some of the poems into longer ballads with her own added lyrics but always with an emphasis on Leunig’s original words. Indeed, only four tracks coming in over the three-minute mark.
The hardcover booklet included with the disc contains the poems presented with a selection of Leunig’s drawings detailing the poems in the way he knows best. The poems themselves cover as much ground topically as most of his work, with some Roald Dahl-like wordplay on pieces such as The Shadow Minister Of Joy to delicate, but powerful odes like Mother Earth. The sentiment of each work is so well captured by Gyan that by the end it’s hard to imagine the music and poetry in a separate context.
_ JASON KENNY X-PRESS MAG
Posted on September 28, 2006 11:07 AM