Waakya – Standing On Smoke LP

Waakya arose from a desire to bring new life to the oldest continuously practised music tradition in the world; manikay, the ancestral songs of the Yolŋu people of Arnhem Land.

A vivid cross-cultural collaboration, Waakya is ceremonial songman Daniel Wilfred, yidaki (didgeridoo) master David Wilfred & electro-acoustic musicians Martin Ng (turntables/CDJ-500/OB-4 speaker), Ben Carey (analog synthesisers), & Matt McGuigan (guitar/electronics).

The ensemble tangles & coils audacious experimentation around & through mantra-like ceremonial songlines to arrive at a sound world that embodies past, present, & future; reflecting the aboriginal concept of time, the everywhen: the eternal present.

As much as the ideas & the players involved come from traditions of experimentation & improvisation, the intention with this project was always to make ‘songs’, unconventional ones perhaps, but songs.

These songs speak of beyond-ancient myths (Nuŋgurryu Nuŋgurryu, Standing on Smoke), stories of nature & totems (Guku, Waakya, Pipit) - the importance of which inspired the vinyl side-names of this release: Land, Spirits, Plants, Animals - & also of more personal ideas like homesickness (Jillai) & sharing culture (Titjimbat Yolŋu Balanda).

“Waakya is glorious. Absorbing into the floor listening.”
- Michael Kucyk (efficient space)

“Often I found myself thinking they were narrating the movements of the earth beneath our feet - slow, rumbling, & viscerally real... Every word Daniel delivered hung over us as if a new star added to the sky.”
- Angus Sharpe (review of show at Art Gallery of NSW)