Mistletone

“When the sun is rising east, won’t you think of me dear Mary;
For the same sun will be setting where I lie on distant shore.
Every letter you have sent I keep folded to my chest
And I read them in the evening when the shells are laid to rest,
And it heartens me to learn that you wait for our return
From hearth to trench so far away, watching waiting day by day;
The distant call of home” – THE ORBWEAVERS

Melbourne band The Orbweavers have released their song, “The Distant Call of Home”, via iTunes with a release date to coincide with Remembrance Day, recalling the end of hostilities of World War I on this date in 1918. Click the link above to purchase via iTunes.

“The Distant Call of Home” was the evocative theme song for “The War That Changed Us”, a dramatised documentary series broadcast on ABC1 in August and September 2014, to mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War.

Click below to watch the video, featuring The Orbweavers’ Marita Dyson and footage from the series:

Written by Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan of The Orbweavers, “The Distant Call of Home” was especially commissioned for “The War That Changed Us”, and Marita Dyson’s exquisite voice featured prominently throughout the four episodes of the series, singing old songs from the World War I period, such as “‘Sing Me To Sleep”, “Good-Byee” and “Oh! It’s A Lovely War”.

Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan reflect that learning and recording traditional World War I songs for the soundtrack, and then writing an original theme song, was an extraordinary experience for them as musicians. “We stood at the gate of our house and looked down the street, imagining what family or a loved one would have felt in the same place, 100 years ago, waiting for news”, Dyson recalled. “We thought about the Australian landscape of home, the sound and light – a tangible environment across time. Themes of time and distance became our focus; the rising of the sun in Australia signalling nightfall in trenches across the other side of the world — the sun as a link between people and places thousands of miles apart.”

The Orbweavers are one of Melbourne’s most loved bands, and one of the best kept secrets of Australian contemporary music. Drawing on a love of history and science, The Orbweavers charm audiences with their evocative songs which tell stories of Melbourne’s creeks & quarries (“Merri”), greyhounds (“You Can Run – Fern’s Theme”), textile mills, industrial landmarks (“Match Factory”) and historic sewerage pumping stations (“Spotswood”). Writer Ben Eltham called their song “Spotswood” “The best song written about Melbourne since Paul Kelly’s From St Kilda to Kings Cross”, and Paul Kelly himself declared, “This song is so beautiful it hurts.” Having been singled out for a special commendation in the Australian Music Prize for their 2011 album Loom, The Orbweavers are currently recording their next album in their home studio in Melbourne’s inner north and will perform at Port Fairy Folk Festival in March 2015.