Sienna Thornton (Album Launch Fundraiser)

After a long silence since the release of 2018’s Cyanide Thornton album, Narrm-based songwriter Sienna Thornton returns with a new full-length album, Birding Out.

This week on Wednesday June 4, we see the release of After Harvest, the first single from the forthcoming album. Says songwriter Sienna Thornton on the track –

“As with a lot of this album I let this song come intuitively, starting with the chord structure which reminded me of patterns in a maze.

Within this I remembered the story of the minotaur from Greek mythology - greed, suffering, nature and nurture, intergenerational threads and the line of twine. This led to linear and non-linear time perception, life-line, body and mind, cycles and spirals, ecosystems and resources - what happens when the extraction of the final harvest has fed our unending hunger.

I found myself trying to find a balance between a desire for certainty, concreteness, and what it feels like to embrace a less tangible, intuitive experience. I tried to imagine where each source of knowing comes from.”

The song features Sienna on most instruments, with a range of guest performers including Shaun Fogarty (tenor sax), Emma Stuart (voice), Georgia Knight (voice), Mei Craken (voice) and Luke Brennan (acoustic guitar). It is accompanied by a music video filmed by Sienna and Jasper Lopez on Yuin Country.

“We filmed the video at Hyman’s Beach just above Booderee National Park on Yuin Country. We were told by a friend to go and see the sand there as we were on a drive down from up north. Finding so much beautiful red seaweed in the water was inspiring visually and texturally, it felt like the interior of a body. We acknowledge and pay deep respect to the custodians of this land who have been caring for Country for so many thousands of years.”

After Harvest is available to listen on all platforms from Wednesday, June 4th. The full album, Birding Out, is out everywhere Friday, July 25th. You can pre-order limited edition vinyl copies of the album here.