Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds brings six musicians from broad-ranging backgrounds together to interpret bird inspired poems, written by John Keats, Thomas Hardy, Emily Dickinson, Judith Wright, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gwen Harwood, A D Hope and others. It features the Seraphim Trio with Anna Goldsworthy on piano, Helen Ayres on violin and Tim Nankervis on cello, along with composer James Ledger and singer-songwriters Paul Kelly and Alice Keath.   Paul Kelly says "This is the second time I’ve worked with James setting a group of poems to music. Writing with him, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. He surprises and challenges me in the best possible way. And it’s been an honour working with such a talented gang on stage and in the studio. I’m excited to be sending our fledglings out into the air!" Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds is a unique marriage of electronics, acoustic instruments and the human voice, celebrating winged creatures from the barn owl to the nightingale, from the thornbill to the falcon, from the magpie to the swan.  

TRACK LIST

1. Black Cockatoos (Judith Wright)
2. The Darkling Thrush (Thomas Hardy)
3. Leda and the Swan (WB Yeats)
4. Barn Owl (Gwen Harwood)
5. Mudlarking A Barred Owl (Richard Wilbur)
6. Hope" is the thing with feathers (Emily Dickinson)
7. Ode to a Nightingale (John Keats)
8. Proud Songsters (Thomas Hardy)
9. Murmuration Thornbills (Judith Wright)
10. The Fly (Miroslav Holub)
11. Black Swan The Death of the Bird (AD Hope)
12. The Windhover (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
13. The Magpies (Denis Glover)