Gurrumul’s final album ‘Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow)’ set for April release, documentary heads for cinema

The final chapter on the Gurrumul Yunupingu music story, the Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow) album, is scheduled for an April 13 release.

The album was four years in the making, slowed down as he became increasingly ill and frequently hospitalised.

It was finished just days before he passed.

It combines the traditional songs and harmonised chants from his traditional Yolngu life with orchestral arrangements.

“Last year we sat and listened to these recordings over and over again, from beginning to end and piece by piece, pulling them apart and putting them back together until all elements shone,” relates his long time musical collaborator and producer Michael Hohnen.

“We had finished the incredible process, preparing to release it and then we lost him.

“We had played many of the pieces live over the past few years of touring and planned how the pieces would work before we recorded them in the studio.

“He was immensely proud of what we achieved on this album and it is an emotional experience for all of us to present this final enormous chapter in his story with this musical statement.”

The album comes two weeks before the April 25 cinema release of the moving and respectful Gurrumul documentary of his life by Paul Williams.

It retraces his turning to music as an expression because of his blindness, his constant balance of family, country and traditional life in Elcho Island in far North East Arnhem Land, and the unfairness of illness striking as he was on the brink of global success.

He became the biggest selling Australian indigenous artist with global sales of half a million. His family was offered a state funeral by the NT Government.

Gurrumul received a standing ovation during its international premiere last week at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival.

At a Q&A after the screening, critics in the audience spoke about how emotionally impacted they had been experiencing a culture from the other side of the world, and of the universality of Gurrumul’s music.

Williams responded, agreeing, “It’s something I continually wonder about with Gurrumul’s music.

“One of the inspirations I had early on was to read his fan mail from all around the world.

“For people who were in palliative care situations the only thing that was really providing comfort was playing that first album.

“A teacher in France with autistic children put on that record and it would calm them down.

“So there is something quite indelible about that music.

“What I try to do as a director is to try to approximate it visually so you get that feeling when watching the film.”

Hohnen told he audience, “Wherever he went and no matter who he engaged with, from Prime Ministers to Presidents through to tradesmen, any person from any walk of life he was able to emotionally touch.

“I was just looking up Quincy Jones’ quote and he said he’s the most unusual, emotional and musical voice he’s ever heard.”

Williams was also pleased at the effect Gurrumul had on people stuck with stereotypes.

“We really wanted to celebrate his culture, to use him to go through the window and look at everything he values and then maybe look at ourselves and see what we value.

“Early on in the piece he made a very simple request to show his community with dignity.

“We were finding with the film’s first theatrical run in Perth how people aren’t used to seeing Indigenous Australians depicted in a glorious way.”

Gurrumul will be released by Madman in Australia on April 26. See the trailer here.