Orpheus Transforms into a Bush Lemon

Tracy Pateman, small metals artist and fellow Hopeful Disruptor has a series of works based around the wanderings and ponderings of Orpheus in the Clarence Valley. At one point in the narrative, Orpheus transforms into a Bush Lemon at Tullymorgan. These are Tracy's evocative words that inspired this soundscape:

CLARENCE SAGA #4
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF ORPHEUS INTO A BUSH LEMON AT
TULLYMORGAN

Scene 1
Orpheus comes at last to Tullymorgan:
wide lap of the Broadwater.
Here ridgelines made of unknown mountains
Decompose again into sandy slopes.
The creeks are untethered,
And billabongs stare open-eyed at the sky,
Now the old trees (roof and floor of this house)
Are gone.

Scene 2
Relying solely on the Milky Way,
Orpheus stumbles towards
A small home planted half way
Between the ridgeline and the water.

Two rooms and one table:
One short leg propped up with books.

Scene 3
Dark emu vaulting half the sky
Orpheus cannot see.
There is no candle on the table,
The small interior space is entirely dark.

Scene 4
Orpheus lies there, face down, ears out.

The stars shift their position,
The forest waits to return.

The sounds of night birds rise –
Changing the taste of the dew

Growing in droplets on the grass,
And seeping into clothing.

Scene 5
At dawn,
An old bush lemon
Sets their back to the ridge,
Stretches out their knotty limbs,
Looks to the east,
And greets the day. 

Released November 21, 2022
Track cover photo by Tracy Pateman

All soundscape recordings by Will Rodgers at Tullymorgan, NSW 2022. Below is a list of species, elements and anthropogenic sounds positively identified that contribute their voices to this piece.

Birds:
Channel Bill Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandae)
Grey Butcherbird (Craticus torquatus)
Southern Boobookl (Ninox novaeseelandiae)
Crimson Rosella (Platycerus elegans)
Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina)

Amphibians:
Common Eastern Froglet (Crinia signifera)
Peron’s Tree Frog (Litoria peronii)
Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog (Litoria fallax)
Robust Bleating Tree Frog (Litoria dentata)

Insects:
Redeye Cicada (Psaltoda moerens)
Cricket (Teleogryllus commodus)
Mosquito (Culex annulirostris)

Mammals:
Grey Headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)

Human Generated:
Footsteps