David Bridie Shares New Collaborative Spoken Word and Music Record Its Been A While Since Our Last Correspondence Music with space for the words to sit between Its Been A While Since Our Last Correspondence is the new collaborative spoken word and music record from renowned Australian solo artist and composer David Bridie. During the quiet of the 2020 pandemic, David reached out to 13 spoken word artists inviting them to compose and narrate a piece that reflected some tangential aspect of Australia. From initial phone voice recordings, to music composition and then back and forth, each piece was refined collaboratively (remotely) until a studio visit was allowed. The contributing artists feature songman Kutcha Edwards, human rights activist Arnold Zable, writer Catherine Deveny, comedian and actor Anthony Morgan, director and choreographer Deborah Brown and more. Working with spoken word in music is a familiar practice for David. Stories and snippets of conversations are heard on multiple Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake albums, as well as in his installation and solo work. To do a full album of this kind had always been an intriguing thought, and now that idea has come to fruition with a collection of varied and unique storytellers. The idea: to focus on the weird and wild suburban sprawls, often harsh landscapes and stories beyond the neat and contained Australia. Collaborations with comedian Damian Callinan, whos piece This Is A Good Diary explores his mothers diary of when she first met and fell in love with his father in 1949. Writer and musician Edwina Preston contributes three short poems in Brother Sister Grave that showcase her dark edginess and personal humour. Kurdish musician and activist Farhad Bandeshs track Freedom is a dedication to the yearning of freedom. Deborah Brown, former principal dancer and choreographer with Bangarra Dance Theatre, in Kapy Kaz Good Child expresses her frustration at not being fluent in her native language. Thanks for Five Years by queer crip poet Kit Kavanagh questions relationships and the weird and wonderful ways our minds and bodies work together. Actor and comedian Anthony Morgan recites a memory from his Great Uncles funeral where a tiding of Magpies join the guests in The Wake Singers, and actor and comedian Matt Quartermaine recalls his brief encounter working in an aged care home laundromat during lockdown in The Laundry Man. Novelist Kathleen Mary Fallon offers a universal prayer for all the characters who call Melbourne home in The Etcetera Prayer, and songman Kutcha Edwards recounts a soul crushing tale of when he was taken away from his mother in Mission Baby (Pass the Parcel). Screen graduate and disability activist Danny Dickson speaks about his anger at those who hold low expectations of his competence in Low Expectations, and novelist and human rights activist Arnold Zable curates a poem dedicated to refugees entitled Tongue of the Hidden. Feminist and writer Catherine Deveny offers a memoir of her younger days going to the Reservoir baths in Into The Drink She Goes, and singer and performer Kerri Simpson contributes a raw eulogy for late musician Chris Wilson in Six Days Before He Died. Of the album and process David says, The past two years of the pandemic were not a lets write songs and record them time for me. It may have been for others, and fair play to them, but I didn't feel like singing. It was lockdown, and it was strange. But out of the left of my eye, this spoken word album appeared and appealed. Here was a different way to spend a day in the studio and come up with a record. A strongly collaborative creation, all with people I respect, admire and with whom I was interested to work with. Ive always enjoyed listening to stories, hearing the timbre of the voice work with composition and sound. I'd done this before in my own work, one specifically with Anthony Morgan on my last album, 'The Wisdom Line with a track called Hemdyn Town. For Its Been A While Since Our Last Correspondence, the only brief I gave to the writers was to ask for their tangential take on Australia. Australian stories but not those kinds. Something they were passionate about and that resonated deeply with them. And that is what I got. 13 writers, poets and storytellers sent me their first draft, written and spoken, creation via voice memo. I sat and listened - got to know the story. Then I thought about what instrumentation or music would fit to support or lift, or not get in the way. A combination of edge and melody and beats and prosaic beauty, and the rise and fall and cack and wheeze and sweet pronunciation of the human voice. Music with space for the words to sit between, strings piano pump organ electronica guitar noises and production, tempo and fades. It's funny, when mastering I realised that you could listen to this intently falling inside the stories or you could listen to it in the background, the spoken voice not being as dissimilar as the sung voice as you would imagine. It has its own character. I wanted to release this album on vinyl as well as digital. I was faced with having to edit down the record to fit on single vinyl..I couldnt cull anyone or any track. I have ended up doing what I always swore I wouldnt . That is, to release a double vinyl album, like those prog rock artists. It has been a while since the last correspondence, and it's a different word now.