The Key of Sea

Pairing contemporary Australian muso's with recently emigrated refugees, The Key of Sea kicks goals as a musical collaboration whilst raising awareness about some of the more recent immigrants to our nation. As Simon Jones writes, it would be nice if somebody dropped a copy in Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott's Christmas stockings.

As we slowly recover from the most tedious of federal elections, the issue of refugees and asylum seekers has once again faded into the background. During a soulless sound-byte grabbing campaign, the two major party leaders offered little but populist rhetoric and fear mongering in their pursuit of votes. Tony Abbott assured us that he’d ‘stop the boats’, Gillard told us she understood our anxieties while shock-jocks ranted and raved about queue jumpers and people smugglers. Yet for all the press coverage the discourse rarely ventured beyond the ‘us and them’ debate, seldom acknowledging the countless refugees who have made a life for themselves here, nor the stories surrounding the asylum seekers life before they chose to flee their countries of origin. Somewhere not so far away, John Howard grinned toothily from his rocking chair.

Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside was one of the few voices of reason during the silly season and his response to Gillard and Abbott can be read here. He and the Human Rights Art and Film Festival are amongst those who have helped to fund The Key of Sea, a new collaborative project pairing Australian musicians with immigrants and refugees hailing from all corners of the globe. The brainchild of Liberty Victoria’s Hugh Crostwatih and AIR’s Nick O’Brien, The Key of Sea pairs some of Australia’s better known artists with recently settled refugees in an act of multicultural unity.

Such a project easily lends itself to political soapboxing, but The Key of Sea is not a protest album. Politics is never far away from the work of performers like Blue King Brown or Urthboy, but the best collaborations here are those that steer away from politicking and embrace the collaborative nature of the project. Tim Rogers had a ball working with rebetiko musicians and The Ghost and their Greek blues jam is the perfect introduction to the project.

Urthboy’s track Letters to Jamshed is made up of snippets of correspondence between his brother’s girlfriend and an Afghani refugee detained on Nauru. Without hammering on about the poor conditions of life in detention, the track offers of a very human view of life in isolation over a funky beat and is one of the standout tracks in this collection. Elsewhere Sarah Blasko and Sudanese singer Ajak Kwai blend perfectly on the slow groove of Nyiir Ienquarr while the Cat Empire make the perfect backing band for Anbessa Gebrihiwot’s Zero. Despite being a song of homesickness, it sufficiently (and mistakenly) raised the ire of political censors in Gebrihiwot’s homeland of Ethiopia and is one of main reasons that he now calls Australia home.

Not all of the match up’s work perfectly. Despite the Vasco Era’s enthusiasm for the project, their collaboration with Iraqi pop star Yousif Aziz feels a little cut and pasted, while Katie Noonan’s contribution feels a little simplistic in comparison with the rest of the tracks on offer, but the quality of the tracks on the album is extremely high. Oh Mercy, Skipping Girl Vinegar and Philadelphia Grand Jury all turn in excellent tracks with their respective collaborators.

Key of Sea is a triumph of Australia’s cultural and musical diversity. Like Jamie Catto’s One Giant Leap project, it focuses on the potential of the cultural melting pot rather than railing against the system. It’s a refreshing stance and one all too rarely present in the age of the cynic. Grab yourself a copy and then several more for your family’s Christmas stockings. Proceeds will be donated to Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Human Rights Arts and Film Festival and Refugees Survivors and Ex Detainees (RISE).

Check out some of the stories behind Key of Sea and grab yourself a copy HERE