expansion b (north)
the second half of the journey 🧡
Looks like a pretty amazing beach, right?
Yeah nah. Lurking in that water, is the following:
crocodiles
jellyfish
sharks
catfish
seasnakes
While Eighty Mile Beach (literally, a beach that’s >80mi long) may look like the stuff of tropical dreams, the water is actually a nightmare in the making. Add into it the fact that the nearest hospitals are around 250km away. Swimming is not a thing you do there.
It was, however, a wonderful place to take photos. Here’s a few more.
I didn’t write any music in Eighty Mile Beach (too busy taking photos) but it does feature as the cover for expansion b (north) which is out now on Bandcamp.
And while there’s no song from that location, there is a perceptible shift in the music, to coincide with the shift in weather when we hit this part of the world.
This is when things got tropical.
From the moment expansion b (north) begins (in Bardi country, aka the Dampier Peninsula, north of Rubibi/Broome), you can hear this shift. This is a new adventure.
While the album is now out in full on Bandcamp, it’s another month til it’s in all the streaming places - you can presave it here.
One song is streaming now though - karlu karlu (perpetual motion).
This is my second time to this very, very special place in the middle of nowhere. I love it so much.
But why perpetual motion? After spending longer than anticipated in the tropics, we had to get home quicker than anticipated. Through the vast, Central Australian desert we drove for 8+ hours a day - we were in a state of constant movement.
But midway, a moment of peace and stillness. An overnight stop at this mystical, spiritually potent place where we camped amongst the howling dingoes and granite boulders, so artfully arranged they look as though they were made by a sculptor (once again, evidence of mother nature being the greatest artist of all time).
I love this song. I hope you do too.
Fun fact: the reversed vocals weren’t intentional. As per every song on both albums, they were totally written and recorded on the road. The vocals for this were really rough and I intended to re-do them when I got home, a couple of weeks later. But when I tried to do that, they sounded bad. This happened a few times with these albums - when I tried to “fix” errors in the songs, they wound up sounding terrible. I guess because I knew they weren’t part of the bigger picture - recorded on the road. So I just reversed them. Thankyou, Ableton.
For those of you who download the Bandcamp album you’ll receive a digital book with photos from the locations, and little stories. But here it is for all of you guys too.
Much love to everyone who came to the listening party yesterday, and to Peter from Santasangre Magazine for another beautiful review, and to DJ Alex for yet more support of the album on Pacific Notions HERE and HERE.
Hopefully see some of you at Peninsula Hot Springs on Friday 19 December.
…and my last sound bath for the year - and last ever at Assembly Yoga + Pilates, West Footscray - on Thursday 11 December.
This will be my last in-person sound bath til March, while I settle into our new community down the coast. But online (free) sessions will be coming before that. So stay tuned.
xx P
Ps. big big love to Tom from I Heart Blank for the new website