NARDOO
ZANA CLARKE and PETER BIFFIN

This rather unique album derives from the frustrations felt by the duo when playing a wide variety of music from baroque sonatas, to Turkish art music, to medieval estampies; they wished to find a better balance (for them) of structure, freedom and individual expression, so set about writing their own material. While Zana plays a Ganassi recorder, a Renaissance instrument quite different from the better-known Baroque variety, Peter plays two instruments from the Asia Minor/India area - the Tar-hu, which is a long necked bowed instrument with four playing strings and seven sympathetic strings, and the Deboosh, a large fretless dobro with six strings tuned low. The resultant mix of ethnic, medieval and jazz influences is individual, exploratory and highly exotic. Nardoo, by the way, is an Australian aquatic plant with the ability to lie dormant in dry mud for many years.