"Yirinda" is the self-titled debut album from Meanjin-based duo Fred Leone and Samuel Pankhurst. The songs are rich with cultural significance and musical innovation. Fred Leone, one of only three Butchulla Songmen, performs songs in the endangered Indigenous language while Pankhurst presents an immersive soundscape of strings, horns, and varied percussion.
Opening track "Yuangan (Dugong)" sets the tone, merging free improvisation with electronic elements. Leone's commanding voice soars over strings and keyboard parts that slowly build in intensity, reimagining and reclaiming a traditional migrational song of hunting and feasting on dugong. "Yirinda," meaning 'now' in Butchulla, is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of such stories.
The lyrics for “Thurum Voi” were written by Fred’s Aunty Nay Nay Bird, an Elder of the Butchulla people and the Wonnamutta clan. “It is a song calling Biral (Butchulla God) down to earth to guide the Butchulla people. Biral is the great sky spirit who ordered the creation of Butchulla country, sea and people,” Leone says. The song’s immersive production pairs Fred’s voice with elliptical piano tremolos, double bass, shimmering chimes and synth arpeggios.
Closing track, "Yunma (Sleep)," with its intricate polyrhythms, captures the album's essence—a blend of heritage and creativity that ensures Butchulla songlines continue to resonate in the present, and into the future.
Yirinda
Yirinda