Note: Prices quoted below are per item, including postage.
If you wish to buy more than one item, please order each one individually,
and we will combine them into a single package and refund you any postage saved.
VERY occasionally the combination of items will require a request for additional postage,
but we will always offer you the option of cancelling the order if you decide not to proceed.
AMBON:
Double CD, with 36-page booklet, 2015
Lloyd Swanton's musical tribute to the extraordinary secret diary of his uncle Stuart, a PoW in World War II.
Listen to samples:
Hymn - Christ the King | Ambiont Jungle | 1,288 Wonderful Ways with Rice | Port Arthur, Port Arthur | Darkest Days
"Part heartfelt tribute and part triumph of the imagination...Swanton's fascinating liner notes detail the history and the compositions, although the listener can choose simply to be swept up into an epic journey of beauty, drama and sadness. The enormous scope of this album is matched by the love, curiosity and reverence that underpins it, and the notes as they blow into your ears and touch the heart."
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"By any standards, Ambon is an extraordinary work... unique...
Lloyd Swanton's magnum opus... a deeply personal album"
RHYTHMS MAGAZINE
"A powerful, moving and musically innovative memorial"
CYCLIC DEFROST
"Soulful... This project is already groaning under the weight of praise heaped on its live performances"
THE MUSIC TRUST
"Ambon towered over this weekend's music...a musical colossus so full of impact and affect...
Ambon will leave an indelible imprint on any who heard this performance"
AUSJAZZ BLOG
"The album is a masterstroke, transporting the listener back in time to that unique broken paradise"
BLUE MOUNTAINS GAZETTE
"Swanton is one of the most propulsive, resourceful bassists on the planet. As a composer, he draws on a diverse range of styles,
unified by the strong, emotionally affecting programme, to make Ambon a listening experience that's hard to forget"
THE WIRE (UK)
"Remarkable double-CD set... deeply personal yet eminently approachable"
NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
"In the hands and mind of Lloyd Swanton, Ambon is a story of hope, love, resistance, survival, and remembrance… You need to hear this music.. to remind you of the futility of war”
RICHARD B. KAMINS, STEP TEMPEST (USA)
"Wonderful - well worth seeking out"
DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
CD VERSION NOW OUT OF PRINT. PURCHASE DIGITAL ALBUM AT: https://thecatholics.bandcamp.com/
Total Time 56:47
Disc II
1. Camp Concert II: Top Brass 13:59
2. Camp Concert III: Darkest Days 6:28
3. Meat Case Bass 2:28
4. Big Noise From Hawthorn 4:14
5. Work Song: The Long Carry 14:25
6. Hymn: Just As I Am 1:45
7. The Ambon Waltz 5:52
8. Field Recording: Di Sana Ada Tuhan 2:55
Total 52:05
YONDER:
2013
Listen to samples:
Yonder | I Cover the Waterfront
Permeate | Doin' the Darwin Walk
4 and 1/2 stars
THE AUSTRALIAN
"Arguably the pick of their catalogue"
RHYTHMS MAGAZINE
"This is what I'd consider a near-perfect jazz album...so clever yet simple...
you really just want Yonder to go on and on, like the baked country roads in their cover shot"
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Purchase digital album, or individual tracks here:
1. Yonder 8:41
2. I Cover the Waterfront 4:17
3. Floating on an Emerald Green Sea 10:24
4. Indigo 2:50
5. Permeate 8:38
6. Mr Crocodile 7:32
7. Sleepout 11:52
8. Doin' the Darwin Walk 12:52
total time 67:05
INTER VIVOS - Live in Concert:
Double CD, 2009
Listen to samples:
Ransome | The Ambon Waltz | Pelicans
"Two nights to remember"
HERALD SUN
BACK IN STOCK!
Disc I:
1. Margarita Thing 6:41
2. Mahal Kita 11:44
3. D's Blues 6:58
4. Home 9:35
5. Wild Life 10:41
6. Grace 7:01
total time 52:39
Disc II:
1. The Ambon Waltz 3:27
2. Chant 9:40
3. High Times 11:13
4. Mossman 6:47
5. Pelicans 9:58
6. Oaxaca 7:58
7. Ransome 9:34
total time 58:37
VILLAGE:
2007
CD VERSION OUT OF PRINT BUT NOW AVAILABLE DIGITALLY
Listen to samples:
Salaam | Half a Shark | Sugarloaf
"Firmly in the good-time groove…a glorious thing"
LIMELIGHT
Purchase digital album here:
total time 52:25
1. Salaam 3:30
2. Half a Shark 6:10
3. Sugarloaf 10:12
4. Pelicans 7:07
5. Grace 5:37
6. D's Blues 5:45
7. Sun Dance 6:18
8. Ransome 7:46
GONDOLA:
2006
Listen to samples:
Mahal Kita | Oaxaca | Meniscus | Bungalow
"A change of direction and their
finest album to date...superb"
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"The sound is big and the effects gorgeous. A beautiful release."
THE WIRE (UK)
BACK IN STOCK!
total time 62:26
1. Mahal Kita 9:04
2. Oaxaca 8:03
3. Penumbra 14:59
4. Palomino 10:31
5. Meniscus 10:29
6. Bungalow 9:19
CHOICE:
2000
Listen to samples:
Ah-Kah-Hah | Skin on Skin | And She Walked...
Special-priced compilation of 11 tracks from The catholics' first four albums,
including five tracks from the out-of-print titles "Life on Earth" and "The catholics".
BACK IN STOCK!
total time 70:35
1. Margarita Thing 4:21
2. High Times 7:00
3. Ah-Kah-Hah 3:56
4. Brothers and Sisters 10:48
5. Skin on Skin 4:01
6. And She Walked... 4:06
7. Home 7:22
8. Chant 7:31
9. In Love 6:11
10. Smoked Oysters 4:23
11. The Wheel 10:34
BAREFOOT:
1999
Listen to samples:
High Times | In Love
"...a dream team of Sydney musicians...ambitious diversity...
a remarkably relaxed and seamless flow of ideas.
Their knack is being able to put a jazz spin on grooves from around the globe- South Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America -
in a sunny, light-spirited way that belies the killer status of the players. This is jazz in a straw hat and Hawaiian shirt...
sensuous and joyous music...a (barefoot) walk in the park."
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
Nominated for ARIA Best Jazz Album Award
BACK IN STOCK!
total time: 55:19
1. Twenty Seven 3:24
2. High Times 7:00
3. Me Me Me 3:30
4. In Love 6:11
5. Wild Life 8:11
6. Barefoot 11:01
7. Mossman 4:11
8. Moving Out 11:52
LIFE ON EARTH:
1997
CD VERSION OUT OF PRINT BUT NOW AVAILABLE DIGITALLY
Listen to samples:
Margarita Thing | Sticky
"...another charming gem. This tightly-focused group...takes multiple influences and stirs them with a swizzle stick
to produce a signature sound which somehow makes perfect sense...
an endlessly adventurous (and highly danceable) effort... already on this critic's short list for the best of '98!"
JAZZ TIMES
Nominated for ARIA Best Jazz Album Award
Purchase digital album here:
total time: 55:19
1. Skin on Skin 4:01
2. Margarita Thing 4:21
3. Turnover 4:35
4. And She Walked... 4:06
5. Clouds Form Shapes... 4:38
6. Afternoon Haze 10:04
7. Sticky 6:56
8. El Beso de la Vida 6:01
9. Easy There, Big Fella! 1:49
10. Sonny Jim 8:36
SIMPLE:
1994
Listen to samples:
Home | Good Morning, Freedom Fighter!
"At once charming, haunting and joyful, Simple is one of the most inventive albums to come along in a very long time...
a thoroughly captivating and highly recommended collection. Find it"
JAZZ TIMES
(listed in Jazz Times Critics' Picks of '95)
Nominated for Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Award
total time: 61:50
1. Smoked Oysters 4:23
2. Ah-Kah-Hah 3:56
3. Uncle Bob's Your Uncle 7:15
4. Gumboot 9:02
5. Home 7:22
6. Good Morning, Freedom Fighter! 6:22
7. Esprit de L'Escalier 1:56
8. Brothers and Sisters 10:48
9 DPM 10:27
THE CATHOLICS:
CD VERSION OUT OF PRINT BUT NOW AVAILABLE DIGITALLY
1992
"The richness, diversity and accessibility of The catholics suffuses every track.
It is their virtuosity, imagination and the inventiveness of Lloyd Swanton's writing.... which makes this music so successful....
no written description can do justice to this music...search out a copy of this superb album"
ROLLING STONE
Nominated for ARIA Best Jazz Album Award
Purchase digital album here:
total time: 58:33
1. Why the Caged Bird Sings 5:32
2. Curl 3:40
3. Walter Burley Griffin 9:22
4. The Wheel 10:34
5. Chant 7:31
6. That's It 5:35
7. Verandah 6:05
8. Glory 3:37
9. Australasia 6:19