Aaron Cupples

★★★★

Island Of The Hungry Ghosts PAN. CD/DL/LP

Debut solo album from feted Australian-born producer and sound engineer. AUSTRALIA’S Christmas Island is a place of both beauty and terror. A biologically diverse paradise, home to thousands of rare species, including a unique variety of migratory crab, it is perhaps less well known as a historical site of native exploitation and the location of Australia’s high-security detention centre for asylum seekers. Gabrielle Brady’s 2018 documentary seeks to capture the dichotomies of this beautiful yet horrific isle, ably assisted by Aaron Cupples’ score. A producer for Spiritualized, Blanck Mass and, er, Miles Kane, Cupples knows how to turn the studio into an instrument, and while it’s arguable that Leo Dolgan’s eerie field recordings should have received equal billing, Cupples’ richly textured blend of birdsong, ocean waves, Buddhist prayers and festival drumming with the bowed voice of an Ellen Fullmanstyle 13-foot-long string instrument creates a fitting blend of melody and unease throughout.