Matt Withers & Sally Whitwell - Starwalker (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

'Starwalker' is a collection of the very best of new Australian music written for the captivating pairing of guitar and piano. In this unique collection, celebrated guitarist Matt Withers and ARIA Award-winning pianist Sally Whitwell use the power and delicacy of their instruments to showcase the beauty and expressiveness of the music. Inspired by the album cover image ('Outback', by Queensland visual artist Sue Needham), the music incorporates a bird's-eye view of the Australian landscape, evoking the natural beauty, fragility and breadth of country in a spirit of warmth and tenderness.

The album opens with James Madsen’s Celestial River Reflections, a meditation on the interplay between the strength of the earth and the spirit of the sky: ‘A river. A path. Somewhere on the earth. But always with a reflection of constellations from above.’ Nat Bartsch then explores the powerful connections between time and place in Where We Were: ‘We all remember where we were when global events suddenly occurred. This piece is written about the moment I realised the COVID-19 pandemic was upon us and would affect all our lives.’

Sally Whitwell’s three-movement suite Starwalker is inspired by the idea of seeing things at a remove, from a distance. ‘Perspective is key. The bird’s-eye view afforded by Sue Needham in her painting allows us to see a kind of magic it is impossible to perceive when you are in the midst of it.’ In Soaring, Julia Vlahogiannis contemplates the experience of flight, aware that a bird up in the sky must see not only the beauty of nature but also the destruction wrought by bushfires.

Meredith Connie’s Seen/Unseen is a reflection on the Australian desert: ‘What if, instead of dryness, I see fragility? What if, instead of unending landscape of barren land, I see a broad expanse under an enormous sky, where everything is always shifting and changing and is never static? Perhaps if within myself I can change, then what is unseen may be seen.’ The album finishes with Sally Greenaway’s Poem III, a journey into the mysterious beauty of the night and solitude: ‘A whisper or a tenderness, deep sorrow or the beauty of stillness.’

Tracklist:
01. Celestial River Reflections
02. Where We Were
03. Starwalker: I. Milky Way
04. Starwalker: II. Wonder
05. Starwalker: III. Astral Dance
06. Soaring
07. Seen/Unseen: I. Fragility
08. Seen/Unseen: II. Expanse
09. Seen/Unseen: III. Unseen
10. Poem III (Arr. for guitar and piano by Matt Withers and Sally Greenaway)


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