by KES
Duets is the sixth album for Melbourne multi-instrumentalist Karl Scullin or ‘Kes’ as he is more commonly known. Having previously released albums both as a solo performer and also as Kes Band, we now hear, as the title suggests, Scullin in intimate collaborations with a broad range of friends and musical family – each performing a sparse and immediately intimate duet.
The only common element on this album is the methodology – Kes with a different music al partner on each track. Musically there is a phenomenal breadth of territory covered, some of it from the most unexpected people. From the percussive (and I suspect quite literal) ‘Shovel and the Bowl’ with Paddy Mann, to Biddy Connor’s melancholy viola on ‘Rodent and the Rosehead’, it’s hard to know where this album might be filed in your CD collection…the ‘post-everything’ section perhaps?
In many respects the duets on this album are simple minuets – a brief sentence extracted from what I suspect is a much larger musical dialogue between Scullin and his peers. The only track that extends beyond 3 minutes is in fact a duet between Kes and…Karl Scullin. Elsewhere we hear less or more of Scullin while his guests take their turns to drive the aesthetic of their respective duets.
From glorious light to disturbing darkness, acoustic purity to gritty noise, Duets serves to further complicate any chance of determining a singular musical identity for Karl Scullin…and that’s a very good thing indeed.
by Owen McKern - PBS Program Manager
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