Tasmanian Band Releases Christmas Single 'Song Of The Birds' Worldwide

Antipodean Baroque group Van Diemen's Band announced today the worldwide release of its single Song of the Birds on major streaming platforms.

Originally a traditional Christmas folk lullaby from Catalonia, the melody was initially made famous by the cellist Pablo Casals and subsequently recorded in English by singer Joan Baez in the mid-1960s.

This new version restores the original Catalan lyrics to a soundscape that combines the gut strings of period-instrument Tasmanian ensemble Van Diemen's Band with ethereal harmonies of the Tasmanian Youth Chorale and the soaring soprano of Quin Thompson.

The arrangement by Donald Nicolson also makes a passing nod to Catalonia's eighth-century Moorish history, bringing a sense of universality to that most homespun form of Christian festival music - the Christmas carol.

Commissioned as an encore piece for the group's annual Christmas concerts, Song of the Birds was turned into a music video in 2021 with financial support from the Tasmanian Government's Arts and Screen Digital Production Fund and filmed in the spectacular setting of Spring Bay Mill, a former industrial woodchip facility on the island's east coast (see it here).

VDB Artistic Director Julia Fredersdorff says the video's success in cinemas and online whetted the public appetite for a soundtrack release. 'Although the song has acquired both religious and political overtones during its long history, at heart it simply celebrates nature and rebirth,' she says. 'With the world starting to reopen as the pandemic begins to wind down, even as territorial conflicts continue to rage, this beautiful tune somehow combines the feelings of hope and melancholy we're all experiencing. We always thought of it as a good concert closer - Casals frequently used it as an opener, even when he played for John F. Kennedy at the White House - but now it's so much more than that, especially this Christmas. Song of the Birds is once again a message for our time.'

Produced by Caleb Miller for Mac40 Media, Song of the Birds is available as a single from today through Apple Music and Spotify.

Van Diemen's Band is online at https://vandiemensband.com.au/