NEW SINGLE from EMILY BARKER

 Emily has posted a new single on Facebook and sent a fascinating email out to her newsletter fans that is worth checking out too

'DINOSAUR BONES'

Emily says : 

Hello I hope you're well. On the 27th October, 1949, two sisters married two brothers in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. One of those pairs was Reiner and Toos, my grandparents, or Ray and Cath as they were known in Australia when they emigrated to Perth in 1952. 'The Double Wedding' was filmed and years later when my nanna passed away, my grandpa grieved by watching the wedding repeatedly. He showed it to me, my siblings, and to dad and mum (their daughter), offering a commentary of who was who frame by frame and cleverly, Mum captured this commentary on her dictaphone. Later when updating the format from VCR to DVD, she overlaid the audio recording. Twenty years on, I found the DVD and felt it was time for another upgrade given the advances in technology - it is now safely stored in the cloud and on various hard drives, and now also as snippets of their special day accompanying my new single, Dinosaur Bones, in a video created by filmmaker Tori Styles. My grandpa would have been incredibly proud to have this footage wedded with my music and likely would have shown it to any passer-by. My nanna would have been shy and deflective of the attention, but content if we all were - such were their opposite natures. My mum is warmed to know there is continued interest in her family and Dutch heritage and to acknowledge connection through generations of family. Dinosaur Bones I know so little that anything You might tell me would be a revelation. – W.S. Merwin (Sire) The past is as mysterious as the future: we never really know what happened there. – Alison Croggon (Navigatio) WATCH THE VIDEO

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When my parents downsized and moved from my childhood home – a small farm by the Blackwood river – into town, there were boxes and old suitcases of mine that accompanied them. On my next visit to Bridgetown I found them stored in a wardrobe awaiting my attention (mum and dad were hoping I might downsize my possessions too). One of the suitcases once belonged to my grandpa – it was brown with faint stripes and the clasps had gone rusty. In it were childhood love letters and trinkets, diaries, CDs, tapes, notebooks and photographs. I even found my first ever journal – a Christmas present from my parents when I was 8 years old. I’m still keeping journals; I could probably fill an entire wardrobe with them if I shipped them from the UK back to Australia (sorry mum and dad). As I was sifting through the souvenirs of my early life, it made me think about the footprints we leave behind as we make our way through life... how much of ourselves we share through stories passed on to younger generations, and what remains of us after we’re gone. It made me reflect on my grandparents and parents and how much I don’t know – just snippets from stories – memories that fragment the more I try to remember. Isn’t it interesting too, how we add to those fragments over time, how we flesh them out? Like finding dinosaur bones, then draw the muscles, sketch the skin, add the meaning. Dinosaur Bones was the first song we recorded during the making of A Dark Murmuration of Words back in November 2019 at Studiowz in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It features the fine musicianship of Lukas Drinkwater (bass), Pete Roe (keys), Rob Pemberton (drums and synth), Misha Law (viola) and Emily Hall (violin). The riff that appears in the verses was taken from a writing session with my dear friend Ted Barnes many years ago which – somewhat appropriately for the song – I found when sifting through a batch of old recordings. I fleshed out the music and added the words... Keep safe and well, Emily x