Balkan Music

Velella

‘Velella’ refers to Velella velella - the “by-the-wind sailor,” a colonial hydrozoan whose way of life, floating across the surface of the open ocean, carries it by the wind to many places, as we hope our music does for our listeners. Recorded live in Brisbane by the extraordinary Melbourne-based sound engineer Siiri Metsar, this album further extends the band’s unique sound and style, inviting listeners to immerse themselves in its finely-crafted soundscapes and improvisations. Over the eight years of their collaboration, East of West have developed an intuitive musical relationship, flourishing through their dynamic interplays, virtuosic unison melodies and expressive soloing. Gajić’s compositions explore gentle melodic motifs nested in uptempo passages set to Balkan-influenced rhythms, interspersed with moments of mesmerising musical sparseness. “I had two new ideas for this album,” Gajić says. “One of them was to arrange tunes allowing for improvised sections to become more open and interactive, and to be as important part of the recording as the melody. I believe we managed to achieve this in a couple of tracks and I am quite pleased with that. Another thing I wanted is to give more opportunity for Malindi to express herself on percussion. She always carefully crafts her percussion arrangements, but this time she had a few more opportunities for open solos which she played rather beautifully.“ Philip Griffin, the trio’s oud player and a highly skilled naturalist, has also contributed two compositions to this album: a Distinct Lack of Parrotfinch - a driving piece in the unusual time signature of 50/8 - whose title links to his adventures in search of the elusive bird. His second piece, Camille, was written for his god-daughter.