Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu

One of the greatest joys derived from music is the opportunity to experience life from a different perspective. And there is probably none more unusual or compelling than that of a Yolngu singer/songwriter from Australia’s Arnhem Land named Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. On his self-titled debut release, Yunupingu sings of ancestral lands and the forefathers and mothers that inhabited them. He sings of the storms that gather and the changes they carry. He sings of family and of pride and of place. He sings of the evening sky and the colors that flavor it. And he sings of the way reflections dance across the surface of the water. What makes Yunupingu’s perspective all the more compelling is that he was born blind. Against the gentle cascade of notes from his right-hand acoustic (played left handedly), Yunupingu’s angelic vocals caress lyrics drawn from a mixture of native and English dialects. His is a sweeping vision of a truly special world-one defined only by the limits of one’s dreaming.