Spirit Lines with Kutcha Edwards, Daniel Jauregui and Adrian Hearn

Spirit Lines: Dropping a pebble for reconciliation

A new musical collaboration between Mutti Mutti man Kutcha Edwards, multiple Latin Grammy winner Daniel Jauregui and percussionist Adrian Hearn looms into view in Melbourne this winter, exploring the persistence and significance of ancestral lines in a spirit of hope. Together, the trio has embarked on a journey of collaborative songwriting, working on principles of dialogue, exchange and partnership.

Spirit Lines, as they refer to themselves, blends Uncle Kutcha's stirring blues, Jauregui's Venezuelan melodies and Hearn's Afro-Caribbean rhythms to evoke a highly original harmony that strongly resonates at a time in which so much attention needs to be given to harmony and reconciliation. The resulting creation, according to Uncle Kutcha, is "like dropping a pebble": a small contribution with tremendous ripples.

Spirit Lines will be performing their latest show on Friday August 16th at the Church of All Nations, a musical conversation between Edwards, Jauregui and Hearn on themes of family, land, sorrow, love and coming of age. Produced and staged by The Boite, this event is part of the organisation's 40th Anniversary programme.

Born on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, Uncle Kutcha Edwards has had a long and prolific artistic career in acts such Watbalimba, Blackfire and the Black Arm Band with whom he toured extensively in Australia and internationally, as well as releasing several solo albums. "Music is not what I do, it is who I am. My songs may be contemporary but they are more than 40,000 years old. They come through me from my ancestors and my people "¦ and they tell our stories," he says.

Born across the planet, in Venezuela, Daniel Jauregui is a musician, composer and producer with an active career as an international session musician. His name has been credited in over 50 releases in a variety of genres, many of which hit top spots in charts around Latin America and USA. He has shared the stage with many top international artists such as Shakira and Juan Luis Guerra and received two Latin Grammys. In Melbourne since 2012, he has quickly risen to a key role in the Australian music scene.

The third element in the musical collaboration is Adrian Hearn, percussionist and scholar who has studied Cuban and West African drumming for over twenty years, initiate of the Afro-Cuban batá drumming tradition, and leader of the band Suns of Mercury.

Apart from the musicians, the project also combines contemporary dance and video projections. For this, they have enlisted the support of Kathleen Gonzalez, experimental-contemporary dancer, ethno-dance writer and cultural producer whose practice combines multicultural, multi-spiritual and global ancestral origins, investigated through dance laboratories and ritualistic experiences connecting the inner and outer self. The projections are the work of Mexican photographer Fabian Cordero, whose recent work creates multiple photo collages in which he seeks to capture the colour of reality itself, themed around cultural diversity, human rights and the environment.