transcription of organ music

‘transcription of organ music’ is the solo project for electric folk/ambient country musician Damon Bird, of Hobart, Tasmania. Bird’s music, which has been described as “haunting and atmospheric” and at times been referred to as Tasmanian Gothic by nature, is a mixture of spacious, softly-strummed and plucked guitar, and stark, fragile idiosyncratic vocals. His songs have a strong storytelling element often concerned with Tasmanian History & Place.

Bird’s first album was 2007’s The Custom of the Sea, a self-released full-length CDR, followed early in 2008 by Live at Sphinx Rock Cave, which was as the titled suggests was quite literally recorded in a rock shelter on the side of Mt. Wellington. Other recordings include the 2009 Songs from the Great Lake album, and more recently, in 2011, a six-song mini-album entitled A Prey to Griff, which was recorded in Bird’s home in Hobart by James Tulczyn and Mastered in Kentucky & San Francisco by Paul Oldham (Palace, Bonnie Prince Billy, Brightback Morning Light etc.).

A Visual Artist, and Printmaker as well as a Musician, Bird independently releases his music on his own imprint, Birdtree Recordings in small handmade art editions, for which he personally creates and prints all of the artwork.

He has been included on a number of compilations, both local & international, including Hobart + Melbourne, Clones and Clones 2010, and Community a Compilation of Hobart Music released by Rough Skies Records in 2010, which included the transcription of organ music track ‘eye for an eye’, a song cited as highlight and as “truly lovely” by such Australian taste-makers as Mess & Noise.

A cover version of the song “eye for an eye”, which first appeared as secret track on Bird’s first album, was also recorded and became the debut musical release for American actress & political lobbyist Fran Drescher in 2009.

Bird has toured within Australia regularly since 2007, and in New Zealand in early 2011 where he was chosen to appear at New Zealand’s revered Campus a Low Hum Festival. Often playing entirely acoustically in unusual or non-traditional performance spaces such as warehouses and subterranean city tunnels, Bird also often performs electrically with varying instrumental accompaniment from a variable backing band consisting of friends and colleagues, and with visual accompaniment of his own video art projections.

While remaining a relatively enigmatic Tasmanian artist, he has played alongside countless high profile Australian & International artists including Mount Eerie (USA), Tiny Vipers (USA), Tenniscoats (Japan), Xiu Xiu (USA), Machine Translations, Mike Noga, Dan Kelly, Lee Memorial, Laura Jean, The Nation Blue, Kid Sam, Michael Beach (USA), Electric Jellyfish, Geoff O’Conner, Seagull, East Brunswick All Girls Choir, Popolice, Houlette, Fabulous Diamonds, Alps and many more.