original music David Bridie ◆ John Phillips music credits recorded by John Phillips & Ciiri Metsar mixed by Simon Polinski assisted by Greg O'Shea at Metropolis Audio, Melbourne music supervision Chris Gough, Mana Music musicians tin whistle Andrew Carswell percussion Michael Barker assorted nonsense David Bridie, John Phillips singers Sally Dastey Kerri Simpson, Judy Gunsen organist Christy Roth

"Hallelujah" (Cohen), published by Bad Monk Publishing, performed by Dave McCormack courtesy of rooArt, produced by John Phillips and Simon Austin

"Alone" (McCormack/Medew/Plant/Strong), published by MMA performed by Custard, courtesy of rooArt

"Dix TV" (McCormack/McCormack), published by MMA performed by Custard, courtesy of rooArt

"Mongoloid" (G Casale/M Mothersbaugh) published by EMI Music Publishing Australia Pty Ltd performed by Custard, courtesy of rooArt

"Adrift" (Eszeky/Morris) performed by Cranky courtesy of Polydor

"Ol' Man Sam Live" (English/Maher/Whitty) performed by Spiderbait, courtesy of Spiderbait "Jesu, Song of Man's Desiring" (Back) performed by Christy Roth

Lyrics:

Leonard Cohen’s very familiar Hallalujah runs over the tail credits, performed for the film by Dave McCormack.

Lyrics as heard in the film:

I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? Well it goes like this: The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya She tied you to her kitchen chair She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Baby I've been here before I've seen this room and I've walked this floor You know, I used to live alone before I knew ya And I've seen your flag on the marble arch Love is not a victory march It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

There was a time when you let me know What's really going on below But now you never show that to me do ya Remember when I moved in you The holy dove was moving too And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above But all I've ever learned from love Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya And it's not a cry you hear at night It's not somebody who's seen the light It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Co-composers David Bridie and John Phillips:

David Bridie and John Phillips were part of the Not Drowning Waving/My Friend the Chocolate Cake push. They had begun by working on features such as Greenkeeping and Say a Little Prayer, with That Eye the Sky the feature they did before River Street.

David Bridie had a wiki listing here.

My Friend the Chocolate Cake had a listing here, at time of writing main website page here. (The band had done a final tour before an indefinite hiatus). The site contained this short bio:

Their name alone should have ensured a quiet life for My Friend the Chocolate Cake. No one dreamed of ARIA awards or the kind of ageless and eternally devoted audience most bands with cooler names would kill for. Somewhere within the unlikely union of kitchen sink piano tales, vivid chamber orchestration and hell-raising instrumental shenanigans, the Melbourne band has carved out a 28 year career including eight studio albums, 2 live albums and 2 retrospective albums, including the most recent release The Revival Meeting.

It all started as harmless fun. In 1989, David and cellist Helen Mountfort were playing in globally acclaimed ambient/world music ensemble Not Drowning Waving when they opted to unplug and unwind with a few more breezy compositions. The idea of the band began when David took a holiday in New Zealand and wrote a collection of songs that didn't fit into the 'Not Drowning Waving' style. He & Helen then began My Friend The Chocolate Cake with the intention of playing all acoustic music.

From the inception My Friend The Chocolate Cake emerged as an enjoyable ensemble, as musical friends & colleagues came together one by one to form their unique sound. Hope Csutoros, a violinist with eastern European gypsy roots and a flamboyant stage presence to match, was an inspired early accomplice. Mandolinist Andrew Carswell and guitarist Andrew Richardson added to an exotic web of acoustic textures. Russell Bradley was the first of several drummer/ percussionists.

The bands collective musical influences are diverse and include: Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Irish & Scottish folk music, Joy Division & folk / pop / rock performers such as Billy Bragg, Arvo Part, Talk Talk, John Cale & Michelle Shocked. My Friend The Chocolate Cake write songs of lyrical & musical mastery about people, characters and their community. Defying categorisation, the band perform emotive musical pieces that movefrom subtle chamber instrumentals to frayed acoustic pop, and songs of wry observation.

By no means formal in their presentation, My Friend The Chocolate Cake travel between atmospheric and ambient through to full scale romps and ballads. The band offer a unique and unsurpassed combination of moods. “That's why Chocolate Cake is such a joy of a band to be in,” says David. “Everyone in the band believes in all those diverse elements really strongly. While it's entertaining, it stands for something. It's a unique band in my experience. You'd bottle it if you knew what it was.”

Not Drowning Waving was represented on a website Follow the Geography, which covered the work of the band, and David Bridie, saved to WM here. There’s plenty of information online regarding these collaborators and composers. Here’s a clipping from the archives, around the time of the soundtrack for That Eye, the Sky. The first is from the Sydney Morning Herald, 30th July 1994, when Bruce Elder and Tony Squires wrote about a number of Australian musicians:

The second clipping is from The Age, 2nd December 1994:

Co-composer David Bridie would later strike out on his own and do scores for features such was In a Savage Land.

There is an interview with Bridie here, saved to WM here, which includes this introduction to this aspect of Bridie’s career:

By 1991, Bridie and co. had nailed the score for Jocelyn Moorhouse’s award- winning drama Proof starring Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. The following year Bridie and Phillips scored David Caesar’s Greenkeeping. Then came What I Have Written, as well as the Judy Davis and Billy Connolly comedy The Man Who Sued God and… well the list goes on. All the while, the clips they were having made for their album tracks were being produced by filmmakers rather than those known for music videos, and all of them “were approached more as short films than band promotion film clips,” says Bridie.

Bridie had this to say about composing for the screen:

“They are both very different process wise and it would depend on which day of the week I was asked as to what preference I would give. I like the team aspects of working on film. There is often a hundred people employed on a feature or in a series and everyone is working towards making it the best it can be. This special relationship only works obviously if everybody buys in, but when it does, it’s a great feeling. The primary relationship for the composer is with the director, the editor and the creative producers and fortunately they have mostly been positive ones in the projects I have worked on, though, like all composers, I’ve got stories. Creatively you are clearly in the director’s house and it’s at its worst when it feels like jingle writing with some Reality-TV-loving exec paying the bills. But at its best there are those projects with a heart or an edge that you believe in and a creative director and artistic DOP allowing for creative hours in the studio creating. I see myself as a songwriter/recording and performing artist before I see myself as a screen composer. It makes me feel in control of my destiny. But I need score work constantly to fund the Wantok Musik Foundation, (WM ‘about’ page here) which I have a big responsibility towards and [which] I don’t draw a wage from.

There’s also an interview with Brodie, and with John Phillips, who did the Greenkeeping score with him, here, WM here.

Not Drowning, Waving have a reasonably detailed wiki here, which provides references to other content on the internet, and there’s a link to Bridie’s wiki here.

At the time that he put out his 2013 album Wake, Bridie’s EPK contained this look at this career:

The quiet achiever of Australian music, seven time ARIA award winning songwriter and composer David Bridie has enjoyed a distinguished career as one of Australia's most innovative musicians. With his repertoire as a recording artist, soundtrack composer, producer, lyricist, uniquely Australian songwriter and singer, as well as a specialist in the music of Melanesia, Bridie has certainly stamped his mark. His recent critically acclaimed solo album WAKE will be followed later in 2014 with a fifth solo release Take The Next Illusionary Exit. A founding member and songwriter of critically acclaimed musical groups Not Drowning Waving and My Friend The Chocolate Cake whose success both in Australia and across the world is well documented, Bridie has also released a number of albums under his own moniker. It is as a songwriter that Bridie has forged his reputation as one of Australia’s best with tracks such as This Year Is Better Than Last Year (DB) , The Kiap Song (NDW) I’ve Got A Plan (MFTCC) The Koran, The Ghan and A Yarn (DB) and The Last Great Magician (MFTCC), all confirming his individual style in painting a mural of the modern world, its geography, its political mores and its dwellers identities. Bridie has released four solo albums; Act of Free Choice, Hotel Radio, Succumb and Wake. These albums see Bridie make a return to the experimental music that his earlier group Not Drowning Waving had been noted for, with Bridie’s voice and electric piano woven around a universe of found sounds, anything from Papua New Guinea conch shells to Morse code intercepted on short wave radio, with bass and drums added over the top of lyrics that are purely and unmistakably Bridie, a ruthlessly honest musical mirror to Australia's complex national character and wry personal insights to the state of being human. In September 2014 he is releasing a 5th solo album Take The Next Illusionary Exit. Over the years Bridie has balanced his career as a live musician with the composition of soundtrack music, with credits for over 16 Feature films including , Proof, Bran Nue Dae, The Man Who Sued God and Gone, several of which received International release. His score for In a Savage Land landed Bridie the award for “Best Original Score” at the AFI Awards, “Best Original Soundtrack” by the Film Critics Circle of Australia, and “Best Soundtrack Album” at the 2000 ARIA Awards. Credits for his 29 television/short films/documentaries soundtracks include Remote Area Nurse for which he won an AFI Award, “Winner Best Independent Release” ARIA Award; The Whitlam Documentary, MABO; Life of an island Man, The Circuit, the feature documentary film Strange Birds in Paradise and the 2012 ten part ABC drama series The Straits; as well as the critically acclaimed 2013 Melbourne Theatre Company production of Solomon and Marion directed by Pamela Rabe for which he was composer and music director. David has always explored his particular passion for Melanesian life, music and history. Now regarded as the world’s foremost producer of Melanesian music artists, David has been instrumental in launching the musical careers of many of these artists including George Telek (PNG) who is now considered an elder statesman of Music in his home country and had his music released on ’s Real World label. Other producing credits include ’s “Jamu Dreaming”, ’s “Stylin Up’ and West Papuan string band Black Paradise’s “Spirit Of Mambesak” cds, Richard Mogu (PNG). Perhaps most importantly is his recent work with Pitjantjatjara man Frank Yamma for whom he has resurrected and relaunched a career that had been stymied by tragedy and the everyday challenges faced by indigenous men in Australia. Franks current standing as one of Australia’s most established indigenous songwriters and performers, and the success of his 2010 release Countryman is testament to Bridie’s vision and persistence. Together David and Frank have played at festivals across the world including Womad UK and BT River of Music at the London Olympic Festival and most recently a tour of Canada in July 2014 taking in Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver Folk Festivals. As music director of various incarnations of SING SING concerts Staged by Wantok Musik Foundation, Bridie has since the mid-90s brought together some of the most important singers, musicians, drummers and dancers from the Oceania region in a unique state of the art concert performance, presenting traditional, contemporary, choral and stringband music with accompanying visuals and aural soundscapes to capture a sense of place, to take the audience on a Pasific journey through the landscape and texture of both urban and grass roots village life. Recently staged at the London Olympic Festival and Australia’s Message Sticks and Womadelaide Festivals and the forthcoming Boomerang Festival, SING SING continues to demonstrate the breadth of talent in our local region to a world wide audience.

(Below: John Phillips and David Bridie, David Bridie solo, John Phillips solo)