Save-The-World Music!

Welcome to Ecopella’s celebration of a decade of environmental harmony! We’ve been looking forward to our second album for a while now - although for rather less than Five Hundred Years. The story behind our opening track concerns a 16th century church in England whose builders planted an oak nearby so its timber could replace the roof’s central beam in the event of fire.

Such vision is rare these days - nowhere more so than in the NSW government which prefers the property developers’ quick buck to the environmental concerns of local communities. We want to bring its attention back to earth and Put It On The Ground.

You already know the slogan: think globally, act locally. Dominating our global thoughts is the threat of catastrophic climate change as our grieving planet sheds Ice Tears. Limiting the resources we consume - particularly those carrying a high cost in carbon emissions - seems an obvious response to Living In One World. Until its defeat in 2007 the Howard government’s dishonest refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol obliged thoughtful Australians to make do with their own individual efforts at reducing greenhouse gases. My Kyoto points to some of these, and boasts more widely about the ethical use of resources.

Activists however recognise a paramount need to seek change at a higher political level than that of the individual or household. Given the weight of opposition and inertia they face it seems inevitable that they’ll grow Weary. If more people shared the load we might well create for them the occasional opportunity for a well-deserved rest.

Until then many of us will feel Restless and raise our voices against the disaster of war. Throughout history armed conflict has agonized not only humanity but also brought horrific destruction to the natural environment. In past centuries Europe lost much of her forests to navies of wooden ships - while in Ireland the woods near Bonny Portmore were razed because they also offered concealment to guerrilla fighters resisting British occupation.

Turning our focus homeward we find a different kind of war as protesters campaign to protect Australia’s old growth forests. Machines Are Closing In was written by one of our members to commemorate a battle in which he took part. Australian waterways too are threatened and Murrumbidgee Water invites us to understand better how the Wiradjuri people have honoured the river and the life it brings. In Tasmania hydro electric dams destroyed the trout-fishing phenomenon known as The Shannon Rise and flooded the original Lake Pedder. Threatened with a similar fate the Cataract Gorge near Launceston was saved by the vigorous action of wilderness advocates.

These waters flow into the ocean, and following them out to sea we achieve a soaring and rather elegant perspective on the conservation of marine bird life on the Wings Of A Seabird.

Back on land, the Eroded Hills of New England inspired a moving, if bleak, spectacle from one of Australia’s revered 20th century poets. We follow this with our own Ode To Soil which honours the substrate with more upbeat sentiments. The agricultural aspects of this earthy theme supply even more levity as we discover that in America The People Are Scratching after disrupting the ecological balance with pesticides. Another satirical warning is sounded by The Vegetables From Hell, this time against interfering genetically with the earth’s produce.

The planet we inhabit has incredible beauty and our wish to preserve All The Wild Wonders it contains brings this collection to a close. We hope that you enjoy our music and will support the cause it serves. This will not be the last you hear of us. We have so much work to do.

- Miguel Heatwole, Ecopella director, 2008