Jen Cloher - I Am The River, The River Is Me (2023) [Hi-Res]

Jen Cloher is a songwriter and performer living on unceded Wurundjeri land in Naarm (Melbourne), Cloher's taut, incisive, terse brand of rock is charged with the static tension that comes with being an eternal misfit; they have spoken truth to power with the shrewd eye that only an outsider can possess. Over the course of five albums, they have won a J Award and an AIR Award and been nominated for an ARIA and the Australian Music Prize, and founded Milk! Records in 2012 with Courtney Barnett. I Am The River, The River Is Me Cloher's fifth album, was recorded between Aotearoa (NZ) and Naarm (Melbourne) with producers Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams), Anika Ostendorf (Hachiku) and Cloher's longtime drummer Jen Sholakis; the album brings in trailblazing artists including Emma Donovan (Gumbaynggirr, Yamatji), Kylie Auldist, Liz Stringer, Te Kaahu (Waikato-Tainui, Ngti Tp), Ruby Solly (Kai Tahu, Waitaha, Kti Mmoe) and members of the Naarm-based Kapa Haka, Te Hononga o ng Iwi. The entire record feels communal a celebration not just of Cloher, but of the rich, life-filled communities that surround them. Cloher's fifth album suggests that home is not found in a place or a politic, but in the community you keep: Inspired by Cloher's powerful matrilineal line of whine Mori, I Am The River, The River Is Me is not urgent, or hurried, but it is vital, made with the care and ease of someone who knows that their past began before birth, and will continue long after they're gone. These are fiercely political songs that never feel heavy: They are energetic and full-blooded, alive with the knowledge that to simply exist to scream and laugh and sing and make art is as much a form of resistance as to fight.