Matt Withers & Sally Whitwell - Starwalker (2023) [Hi-Res]

'Starwalker' is a collection of the very best of new Australian music written for the captivating pairing of guitar and piano. In this unique collection, celebrated guitarist Matt Withers and ARIA Award-winning pianist Sally Whitwell use the power and delicacy of their instruments to showcase the beauty and expressiveness of the music. Inspired by the album cover image ('Outback', by Queensland visual artist Sue Needham), the music incorporates a bird's-eye view of the Australian landscape, evoking the natural beauty, fragility and breadth of country in a spirit of warmth and tenderness.

The album opens with James Madsen’s Celestial River Reflections, a meditation on the interplay between the strength of the earth and the spirit of the sky: ‘A river. A path. Somewhere on the earth. But always with a reflection of constellations from above.’ Nat Bartsch then explores the powerful connections between time and place in Where We Were: ‘We all remember where we were when global events suddenly occurred. This piece is written about the moment I realised the COVID-19 pandemic was upon us and would affect all our lives.’