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"... miraculous harmonies" "Their sound is complex and cleverly contrstructed
but they perform it with feeling and wit" |
| Photo by Corrie Anconé | |
| Gemma Turner, Linda Marr and Clarita Derwent | |
| Pure mouth magic! Australian A Cappella
pioneers Blindman’s Holiday are back, recently reformed and with
renewed energy after a low key year. Clarita Derwent and Linda Marr
welcome back original member Gemma Turner, offering a taste of things
to come in 2009, with a short set of new material using their phenomenal
individual and collective skills to combine in exquisite harmony.
Their love of tribal, contemporary and exotic music has led to an
astounding repertoire ranging from haunting traditional ballads to
upbeat originals, from Balkan harmonies to sinuous Latin rhythms.
Since 1985, BMH have toured extensively throughout Australia and Europe, performing in venues from the New Morning Jazz Club in Paris, WOMAD in the UK and the Melkweg in Amsterdam to the Sydney Opera House. Chosen to represent Australia as official performers at the South Pacific Forum for Heads of State, they visited the tiny island of Nauru in 1993. Australian festival performances include the inaugural Womadelaide, Adelaide and Melbourne International Arts Festivals and Port Fairy, The National and Woodford Folk Festivals on numerous occasions. Proudly performing at Olympic events in Sydney in 2000, the group then successfully undertook a 6-week tour across the Top End of Australia in 2001. The highlights of 2002 were sellout concerts at historic Government House and Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney. In 2003 the group released a children's album, Work Play Sleep. The last few years have seen the group conducting vocal residencies and other projects for Musica Viva as well as continuing to tour nationally and internationally (New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei). Their fifth and latest release was an Australia Council funded CD titled About Time |
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"A breath of pure air from
Australia...Four women and their enchanting voices .....sparkling
with precision and clarity"
La Voix du Nord (France) 1992 "...brilliant vocalisations of any music that takes their fancy" The Age (Melbourne) 1992 "Ace Australian all-female a cappella group who dazzle with their simple intensity and sensitivity...A must." Time Out (London) 1992 "surely the best a cappella group in Australia and one of the best in the world" Sydney Morning Herald 1990 |
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