Hand To Earth
Vocalists Daniel Wilfred and Sunny Kim form the heart of Hand To Earth, which has quickly developed an international reputation as one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary music ensembles. Daniel Wilfred sings in language, and is the keeper of Yolngu Manikay (songs) from North East Arnhem Land that can be traced back for over 40,000 years. His is the oldest continuously practised music tradition in the world. Sunny Kim sings in English and Korean, intoning gestures that invoke raw elemental forces. Together they sing of the stars, of fire, and of the cooling rain against the drone of David Wilfred’s didgeridoo and atmospheres created by trumpeter and sound artist, Peter Knight, and clarinetist Aviva Endean who draw on the minimalism of Brian Eno and Jon Hassell to create a bed for these beautifully contrasting voices.

Sipaningkah
Sipaningkah creates dense, trance-like compositions that are steeped in the Minangkabau culture of his home province of West Sumatra, Indonesia. Fusing elements of folk and avant- garde noise, his new Chinabot-released record Langkah Suruik calls on ancient musical traditions to create a new world, one that has a teeming, hypnotic energy, rich with textural depth.

Hand To Earth Personnel
DAVID WILFRED - yidaki, voice, dance
David Yipininy Wilfred is a Ritharrŋu man, and the traditional Djunggayi (manager) of the Manikay (songs). He lives in Ngukurr, NT and teaches song and dance to the children at the Ngukurr School. He has been collaborating and touring for almost 15 years, sharing his songs and culture with people around the world. Together with Daniel, he was awarded the NT Luminary Award for ‘cultural leadership and sustained creative contributions in Australia and beyond’ during the 2020 Art Music Awards by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre.

SUNNY (YOON SUN) KIM – voice, electronics, percussion

Sunny Kim is a Korea-born vocalist, improviser, composer and educator based in Melbourne. She is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music of the University of Melbourne, Australia. After completing her studies in jazz at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Sunny moved to New York in 2005 where she performed and recorded with many internationally renowned musicians. She’s a two-time winner of Jazz People Magazine’s Reader’s Poll Awards in Best Vocalist category and collaborates with contemporary and traditional musicians, dancers, and visual artists.

DANIEL WILFRED – voice, bilma
Daniel Wilfred is a Wagiläk man from Ngukurr, NT. He was born in Nhulunbuy, skin name Wamut. He’s a ceremonial leader for the Wagiläk people, singing Manikay and playing bilma at ceremonies in Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Groote Eylandt and surrounding areas. He studied closely with his Elders, including song man Roy Ashley from Beswick, NT. Together with David Wilfred he has been collaborating and touring for almost 15 years, sharing his songs and culture with people round the world. Daniel was the recipient of the 2019 Arts Fellowship by the Northern Territory. Together with David, he was awarded the NT Luminary Award for ‘cultural leadership’ beyond’ at the 2020 Art Music Awards.


PETER KNIGHT - trumpet/electronics/percussion
Perpetually curious, Peter Knight’s practice exists in the spaces between categories, between genres and between cultures. From 2013-23 Peter was the Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra, for which he commissioned over 100 compositions and collaborations from a diverse range of international and Australian artists. He also composed for, and performed in the company, presenting his works at international festivals and venues in more than a dozen countries winning awards including four AMC Art Music Awards, the Albert H Maggs Composition Prize, and numerous ARIA nominations. Peter has maintained an active solo career developing an international reputation as a innovator who is extending the possibilities of his instrument with approaches that interweave acoustic and electronics. His latest solo release, Shadow Phase, is out on the ROOM40 label, described by Headphone Commute as, "a carefully curated exercise in reflective restraint, dreamy atmospherics, ebbing dynamics.”


AVIVA ENDEAN - clarinets/harmonic flute/electronics
Aviva Endean is a clarinettist, composer, sound artist and performance-maker dedicated to connecting people with each other and their environment through attentive listening. She regularly works across a range of contexts including experimental and improvised music, new chamber music, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Aviva’s work seeks to extend beyond the boundaries of her art form and to reimagine the possibilities of sound. She has collaborated with some of Australia’s most respected arts organisations including The Australian Art Orchestra, Room40, Chamber Made, TURA, and Chunky Move, and was the recipient of the Freedman Music Fellowship (2015), the APRA/ AMCOS Art music award (2020/2023), a Greenroom award (best composition for dance 2019) and the Peggy Glanville- Hicks composer’s residency (2021).

A call to open ears - eluding genre, traversing continents, fusing the ancient and the contemporary.

The idea for Hand To Earth was conceived during the Australian Art Orchestra's Creative Music Intensive, held in the starkly beautiful highlands of Tasmania. Each year the Australian Art Orchestra brings together 40 adventurous musicians to learn new approaches to voice, rhythm, and musical interaction - including the extraordinary Manikays (songs) of Arnhem Land and musical traditions of Korea.

These approaches to human voice sound very different, but there are many connections: stories, improvisation, a focus on extreme refinement of vocal techniques, and repetitive/hypnotic rhythms.

“When art making crosses cultures, when art making bridges things that usually divide us, what you end up with is the essence of human connection.” - Peter Knight

“In our performances, you’re going to experience friendship. And you’ll hear us share ancient ideas and stories, but told in a way that’s quite contemporary.” - Sunny Kim

Hand To Earth
Yidaki / Voice / Dance: David Wilfred
Voice / Electronics / Percussion: Sunny (Yoon Sun) Kim
Voice / Bilma: Daniel Wilfred
Trumpet / Electronics / Percussion: Peter Knight
Clarinets / Harmonic Flute / Electronics: Aviva Endean

Sipaningkah
Musician: Sipaningkah