Project Description
BORROWED VERSE
Various Artists
Album Review
By Benjamin Smith
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Borrowed Verse is the brainchild of Brisbane producer Simon Munro. The premise is a simple one: take an established Australian artist, preferably a singer songwriter, and ask them to pick a piece of poetry to interpret musically.
Contributors to the album include Glenn Richards, of Augie March fame, who’s track Strange Bird is both the first track and the lead single from the project. The piece was written by Sydney born Michael Dransfield, who’s tragic death at 24 as a result of the drug dependent life that fuelled much of his work robbed him of the opportunity to fully realise his talent.
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GLENN RICHARDS // Pic – Carly Devine
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ANGIE HART // Photo – Mia Mala McDonald
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Also contributing is the prolific Angie Hart. Her two pieces, The Bee Hut and Not the Same, adapt the work of Dorothy Porter, the influential queer poet who also died prematurely. In speaking about how she came to Porter’s work, Hart concedes Porter’s poetry helped her release grief she had found otherwise inaccessible.
Another notable contribution to the project is Straws, art-pop four piece Stress of Leisure’s adaptation of fellow Queenslander David Stavanger’s short work. David Cooney adds a nice piece, as do Ben Salter and Emily Lubitz from folk favourites Tinpan Orange.
Absorbed as a singular piece, there is a sombre, if not morose, feel to the project. It is probably best experienced alone where the depth of the lyrical landscapes can be given enough attention to do them justice.
As well as giving an airing to the works of local poets who might otherwise have remained undiscovered, the project challenges the songwriters who, deprived of their own relationship with language, are required to adopt alternative approaches to finding their voice inside someone else’s art.
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BEN SALTER
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EMILY LUBITZ
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This is probably never going to be a contender for feelgood record of the year, but one of the nice things about a piece like this is that its complexity means it can be revisited. There are turns of phrase, imageries and interpretative curveballs to be discovered here for someone inclined to go exploring through multiple listens.
The album should see a public release on 15 June and will get its first public outing at Tasmania’s Dark Mofo Festival on 22 June. There are, according to the producers, likely to be a few surprises for anyone lucky enough to catch any of the performances associated with the record.
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BORROWED VERSE
Tracklisting:
1. Glenn Richards — A Strange Bird
[Poet: Michael Dransfield]BORROWED VERSE
2. Tom Cooney — Morbid Fascination [Poet: Pascalle Burton]
3. Augie March — Mephistopheles Perverted [Poet: Kenneth Slessor]
4. Angie Hart — The Bee Hut [Poet: Dorothy Porter]
5. Ben Salter — Tracks [Poet: Uncle Herb Wharton]
6. Paul Bonetti — Midwinter (Making a Shelter from the Rain) [Poet: Michael Dransfield]
7. Ben Salter — Where Corals Lie [Poet: Richard Garnett]**Only non-Australian poet
8. Angie Hart — Not The Same [Poet: Dorothy Porter]
9. The Stress of Leisure — Straws [Poet: David Stavanger]
10. Emily Lubitz — Today You Asked Me If I Remember What You Told Me About Love [Poet: Oscar Schwartz]
11. Jessie L. Warren — Dear John [Poet: Maria Zajkowski]
12. Nausicaa — Silence [Poet: Judith Wright]
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Working with poets and musicians from around the country since 2014, the Borrowed Verse project has commissioned new work for TEDxBrisbane, Woodford Folk Festival, the Queensland Poetry Festival and now Dark Mofo in Hobart on June 22.
Dark Mofo audiences will be enthralled by live performances from the Borrowed Verse album. Beyond the album, Tiny Ruins is playing two adaptations of W.B. Yeats and there’ll be a number of new adaptations just for the show. For example, adaptations of a poem by Leonard Cohen and Sylvia Plath.
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Dark Mofo tickets are available HERE
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BORROWED VERSE
released JUNE 15
on ABC Music.
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www.borrowedverse.com
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