GEORGE XYLOURIS OF XYLOURIS WHITE
Xylouris White is the partnership between Jim White and George Xylouris. With a little help from their friends, the pair produce startling instrumental works and experimental sounds. Each with their own extensive and respective musical heritage. Jim White, a third of the pioneering Australian outfit The Dirty Three and George Xylouris, a long-time musician and collaborator. The duo’s latest release The Forest In Me delivers another beautiful sonic excursion. One that was born out of an all too familiar story of isolation, distance, and lockdown.
Recorded during the height of the pandemic it was inevitable that those times and feelings would be impregnated on the album. Now on the other side of such times, it is upon reflection that Xylouris can say, “The album has three threads running throughout. The past, the present, and the future.” Largely inspired by Rebecca E Marshalls film The Forest In Me, a common thread tying the album together is that of time. The concept at the heart of the record isn’t one that is solid or certain but having produced the record, for Xylouris, the completed work is for, “People make of it what they will. That’s our aim.” The notion of setting the music free is an echo of the ethos behind the entire album and how White and Xylouris approach their craft. With no fixed address, it is easy to wander and roam to wherever inspiration calls no matter what the circumstances and irrespective of location.
This can be attested to by so many tracks on The Forest In Me. Upon listening to the record, it is with a sense of immediacy that ethereal and larger-than-life sensations are conjured up by the sonic spaces with which Xylouris White explore. One such song ‘Seeing The Everyday’ acts like a conduit between the listener and the music. Achieving such audible contact in a purely instrumental way is always hugely impressive. Explaining how the bridge between concept and creation, intangible and tangible is built, Xylouris simply states, “Sometimes an idea sparks a piece and at other times and the piece comes first and the idea attaches itself later on.” Elaborating a little further on the unspoken interplay between their artistry, their music, and the listener’s experience of it, “We like to leave interpretation of our music very open to the listener. Just as we have thoughts and images as we play that we don’t necessarily share, so we hope the listener has a similar experience. I think instrumental music is in many ways more suited to open imagination as there are no words anchoring the sound. Our methodology is to play”. The freedom to play and explore sound in an entirely unfettered way is bound to produce a broad and expansive recording and that dynamism between real and imagined, collective and individual is one that is also explored by Xylouris White through the medium of film.
Film and music video clips are symbolic and symbiotic expressions often of intangible emotional, psychological, philosophical, or political states but when considering instrumental records, how that imagery is united with sound takes on a special significance. For Xylouris White The Forest In Me was a source of inspiration for the record and that well of inspiration spilled over into many of their songs. A tentative tether between what is in the musician’s eye and the listener’s perception.
To allow the tunes to receive a life of their own, several video clips were handed over to filmmakers to create whatever they saw fit as Xylouris confirms. “All the filmmakers were given the album and titles and chose the track they wanted to use for their films. They had no further direction than that. The theme here was inspired by the title and music.” Such an open-ended option may be daunting for some but exciting for others. As the director of ‘Red Wine’ Anna White discusses, her clip which was filmed in rural Victoria, Australia, with its depiction of Australian fauna in all its glory. “I had been working on an idea for a short film over the past year. I was interested in capturing the movement patterns of birds and animals native to where I am located in Victoria, Australia. So, I had been quietly observing and filming over this period. I began putting these clips together. I felt it needed something else, so I filmed myself moving in the landscape too. Being invited to make a music video for “Forest in Me” provided a great opportunity to bring these ideas together. ‘Red Wine’ was the song that drew me.”
From the real to the imagined, ‘Long Doll’ on the other hand is an artistic video clip with a music box at the heart of the visuals. It wavers between macabre and magical, a visual blend of a banjo and blooded torso which seemingly has no apparent meaning but as director Dee Hannan quickly points out, “The ballerina is mesmerised by the music and dances herself to death. Hence the blood legs. No dollies were harmed in production”. Elaborating a little further, Hannan goes on to say, "When we heard the piece and were given the title, we thought the sound of the mandolin was reminiscent of the plinky-plonk of a wind-up music box, but its meandering notes, punctuated by maniacal flourishes, sounded like it was haunted and so would need a more sinister and psychedelic look and feel. We ‘found’ a music box and filmed it and the story of our ballerina evolved from there. The ‘horror’ of the ballerina, who dances herself to death, came to represent both the beauty and the intensity of the piece. The symbolism is of course up for grabs, but I think to us its about the suffering of the ballerina, who literally bleeds for her art. We took her dance to the extreme where she dances herself to death, but she then transcends her body and her spirit dances in the sky while her legs remain battered and bleeding on the ground. More generally, the theme of today’s rampant abuse of the body in the name of ‘beauty’ is contrasted with the hyper-natural sounds of the mandolin with breathing sounds and all.”
In working with so many artists such as filmmakers and musicians over the years, it is interesting to hear how certain moments and conversations still resonate with Xylouris. Touchstone conversations remain influential and in turn, continue to alter the way Xylouris approaches his craft. “Once in conversation, a close friend commented to me that “less is more”, many of her comments make me think a little deeper. I seek her opinion often.” Similarly, performing with so many varied musicians over the decades, unique shows stand out as being particularly memorable ones as they yield both a deep personal and cultural significance as Xylouris recalls. “One I will never forget was with Xylouris Ensemble at the Pink Lakes near Mildura where we had the honour of working with a young didgeridoo player and dancer who choreographed a dance for a local dance group. The sound and scene of the place was so inspiring, the pinks and purples touched each other at the edge of the horizon. Another was playing with Jim (White) at dawn in Southern Italy in the countryside. We started playing with the arrival of the first ray of sun. Another moment was playing with Nick, Adonis and Apollonia (my kids) and NBE symphonic orchestra in Amsterdam and Athens.” Uniting family, life-long friends, country, and culture and weaving them into one’s passion must surely be the pinnacle of one’s career. And as Xylouris so eloquently explains, “Music gives me meaning. Everything else is around music. It’s my axis”. That unwavering and immutable core is Xylouris underpinning.
It must be questioned, however, where does one go from here? If all that you have set out to achieve has been accomplished, what continues to excite, motivate, inspire, and draw wonder when creating and expressing an artistic desire? For Xylouris, “What continues to excite me is to hunt for inspiration. To see what will be the next thing that will inspire me deeply. “And it is with a quote from French painter, printmaker, and sculptor Pierre Soulage that most rings true for Xylouris, “What I do leads me to what I’m looking for.”
That initial search that kickstarted a lifelong career in pursuit of creating and capturing beautiful music remains the eternal search that continues to burn bright for Xylouris. The Forest In Me is just the most recent collection of experiences embedded in a body of work that has been laid down in a long line of remarkable pieces created over many decades but will surely not be the last as that ceaseless inspiration churns endlessly within.
