Frank Yamma
Tjukurpa: The Story
Album · Singer/Songwriter · 2020
Named for a term referring at once to the past, present and future in Aṉangu culture—which includes Frank Yamma’s Pitjantjatjara people of the Central Australia Desert—Tjukurpa is fittingly a career retrospective for the veteran songwriter. Drawing from his acclaimed mid-2010s albums Countryman and Uncle, this collection sees Yamma accompanied by members of No Fixed Address, Little Murders, My Friend the Chocolate Cake and Not Drowning, Waving. The opening David Bridie co-write “Beginning of the Day” especially makes for a gorgeous introduction to Yamma’s folk-influenced musical cues and profound storytelling.
Also included here is The Kulila Project, a 2020 remix record that sees a smaller selection of his songs transformed via electronic beats and dreamy textures. Hearing starkly different reworkings of the same original material only confirms just how universal and moving these songs really are. And despite mostly leaning toward patient, expansive pacing, Yamma mixes things up on his own as well, hitting a brisker-than-usual stride on the Pitjantjatjara-language standout “Everybody’s Talking”. Meanwhile, the soul-searching “A Blackman’s Crying” employs both English and Pitjantjatjara lyrics to make its mournful subject matter reach as wide an audience as possible.