Moonlighting as a staff writer for Cue La Musique Magazine, I recently took a trip to the land Down Under to write a story about Australian musicians, Ryan Whitewolf & Kuya Howler as they toured the East Coast Of Australia.
“With no maps to show them the path, the aboriginal ancestors of Australia would navigate vast stretches of the land by singing songs. Landmarks such as rivers and rock formations would form the basis of lyrical content, while ascending or descending melodies revealed altitude and inclinations of the land. The songs themselves, when sung in the correct order/cycles, contain detailed geographical information about the ‘songline’ they tread. A traveller with a perceptive musical vocabulary (and deep lungs) could undoubtedly voyage across the country with ease. Instead of maps, the ancient aboriginals used music as a tool to travel.”
With no money, transport or accommodation, Ryan & Kuya must use their music as a tool to travel and complete the tour. Unwittingly following in the footsteps of their Dreamtime ancestors, they are carving their own ‘songlines’ in the modern context.
This trip resulted in some phenomenal visible light photography, however, sometimes it just takes another spectrum to tell the whole story:
It’s beautiful to see IR photography interspersed in such an article with regular photography like nothing even happened.
You can read the magazine right here for free!
http://issuu.com/cuelamusique/docs/issue_iii_-_the_sxsw_edition?e=0/13009240
