Ash Dargan, an Australian indigenous recording artist world renowned for his mastery on the Didgeridoo has been pushing the boundaries of contemporary world music for the last eight years. His distinct blend of Australian indigenous and contemporary world music captures the essence of one of the oldest cultures on earth and with it transcends the boundaries of time. His music has been described as the soul of the Australian Dreamtime landscape with a timeless quality reflecting a deep connection and reverence for the spiritual wisdom of his ancestry.
A member of the Larrakia Nation, the traditional land owners of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, Ash is an ambassador of his culture through his music, storytelling and live performances. Ash was classically trained in music from the age of eight on trumpet and came back to his cultural roots at the age of twenty two. His grandmother and great uncle, both traditional elders of the Larrakia people were instrumental in his musical adoption of the Didgeridoo and its deeper cultural significance. Through them he came to know of the Didgeridoo’s unlimited potential for the expression of rhythm and its ability to represent the power of the natural and spiritual worlds. The vocal harmonies used in traditional corroboree‘s (ceremonies) and the natural voice of Australia’s native song birds have also had a great influence on his musical compositions.
Biography
1997-2000 Ash tasted his first major success recording with world music producer Jim Wilson on a compilation album entitled “Tulku Season of Souls,” a Polygram release that went top ten in the US World Music charts. After touring abroad in 1998 Ash returned to Australia and was snapped up by the most successful indigenous recording label in Australia, Indigenous Australia, creating over the next few years a body of work that has sold over 500,000 units. Ash’s exploration into world fusion rhythms with his releases Earth Rhythms, Ash Dust & Dirt and Sticks Bones and Song Stones have become popular world drum and Didgeridoo cd’s in Australia, Japan and the USA. In 2000 Ash’s release through Sony Australia “Indigenous Rhythms” was nominated for Release of the Year at the Australian National Indigenous Music Awards 2000.
2001-2004 After a sell out national tour of Japan in 2001 Ash went back home to the Northern Territory and over the next two years created his seminal work TERRITORY a multi media live performance show enabling him to take audiences around the world on a journey into the creation myths of the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime. Since 2003 Ash has been touring the TERRITORY throughout the world.
2005-06 The launch of Ash’s latest CD STORIES OF WIND at the Toronto world music festival has Ash unleashing his upbeat Didge/eco tribal beat driven grooves laced with live vocals and sensuous ethnic flutes to an ever growing world audience. Early in 2005 Ash was contracted by the Northern Territory Tourist Commission to supply the music for their new international advertising campaign.
“Ash is a bridge between the entire world music sound of this century and what is happening here in Indigenous Australia. Ash as a composer has an ear for what we all want to hear.”
Gavin Jones, Editor of Deadly Vibe. Australia’s national indigenous magazine
Live Performance
Ash Dargan’s powerfully moving live performances take audiences on an epic journey into the Australian Outback and the world of the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Featured performances from his latest release, ‘Stories of Wind’ deliver an unparalled experience of contemporary indigenous world music. Ash showcases his extraordinary craft of storytelling and live Didgeridoo performance creating a living, breathing dialogue between the sounds of the Australian outback and stories of myth and magic found throughout his travels of the Northern Territory.
In performance Ash uses digitally recorded samples of Australian songbirds, wildlife and environmental sounds collected on his many travels throughout his country. These are layered seamlessly into live performances creating what Ash calls his ‘Eco/Tribal Living Pulse’ of Australia. These percussive beats created form frogs, crickets, song birds and the elements of landscape are mixed into soul driven grooves that literally breathe with the spirit of Australia. Add to this Ash’s mastery of an impressive collection of ethnic world flutes and his visceral vocal harmonies and you have the creation of the Dreamtime on stage. The effect is both powerful and intoxicating to the senses, leaving audiences entranced.
Ash’s music is the soul of the Australian dreamtime landscape with an abundance of primal grooves.
1997 – Tulku Season of Souls -‘The Fire That Speaks’ – Triloka Records
1998 – Earth Rhythms – Indigenous Australia
1998 – Wirrimbah — Indigenous Australia
1998 – Trancescapes – Indigenous Australia
1999 – Rhythm of Nature – with Coloured Stone – CAMMA
2000 – Breath of Man – Indigenous Australia
2000 – Ash Dust & Dirt – Indigenous Australia
2000 – Indigenous Rhythms 2000, with David Hudson – Sony Records
2001 – Pharoah’s Dreamtime – Indigenous Australia
2001 – Stick Bones & Song Stones – Indigenous Australia
2001 – Didgeridoo Made Easy – a beginners guide – Indigenous Australia
2002 – Meridian – Ancestral Roots – with Oscar Serrallach – Soundsource Productions
2003 – Territory – 13 Sacred Journeys into Dreamtime – Soundsource Productions
2005 – Stories of Wind – Soundsource Productions