Woolunda: Ten Solos for Didgeridoo

In recent years, unprecedented interest in Australian Aboriginal culture and art has helped to bring the visceral sound of the didgeridoo to international awareness. Though little more than a hollowed-out tree branch, this Northern Australian wind instrument is capable of producing a vast array of intricate rhythms and otherworldly tone colors. The elaborate improvisations that result not only suggest the wonders of nature, but the mysteries of creation itself. The didgeridoo speaks with an unforgettable, primordial voice to all who hear it.

Woolunda is the first solo album by didgeridoo virtuoso, David Hudson. Although he makes his own instruments and performs in traditional styles, this artist has also taken the art form to a new level through an innovative combination of extended techniques and modern compositional ideas.

Air Cave for instance, was the result of an immediate response to the sonorous atmosphere created by a Lexicon digital reverb. Hudson's inventive use of voice, space and explosive blasts of sound have more in common with 20th century avant-garde music than ancestral Aboriginal music. Woolunda features another expansion of didgeridoo technique. By fitting together two PVC pipes, one inside the other, Hudson is able to modulate the pitch much like a trombone slide. Didgerijig is an engaging combination of sounds from the Australian outback set to joyful Celtic rhythms. Roo and My People, on the other hand, are rooted in Hudson's years of traditional playing.

Recorded in a single evening, David Hudson's spontaneous, multi-leveled compositions were performed live with no overdubs or post-production enhancements. Producer, Steve Roach, provided a carefully designed resonant setting that inspired Hudson to play with ambience and to take the didgeridoo in some unexpected directions. On Woolunda, Hudson illustrates that the didgeridoo is truly a timeless instrument, able to sustain the ancestral sounds as it expresses the continued evolution of the Aboriginal experience.