Homecoming by Lastovke (The Swallows)

Every story must start somewhere and ours began beneath the Southern Cross beside a Tasmanian beach. The sky had already darkened and Rebeka’s family was readying to return home after their early evening walk. Her three children were speaking to each other in boisterous Slovenian. A bearded man came forward and asked in a friendly manner in English: '' Excuse me please, what language are you speaking, is it Russian maybe?'' They replied that they were speaking Slovene and that they had just moved here from Europe. At this stage that they were certain that they would have to further explain a little more about Slovenia. To their great surprise, the stranger's eyes lit up immediately and he enthusiastically greeted them "Hello, I'm Fred" in perfect Slovene. And so began the intertwining of threads. They were later joined by Luke Plumb, to form a trio, with Fred’s assurance "You'll see Rebeka, he'll understand the Slavic spirit." And so in front of you is the project entitled “Swallows”, which makes a fabric from very different Slovenian and Australian threads, by the interweaving of this wonderful bunch of melodies and stories.

Vsaka zgodba se nekje začne in naša se je začela pod južnim križem na tasmanskih plažah. Zunaj se je že večerilo in Rebeka se je po sprehodu z družino odpravljala domov . Njeni trije otroci so se v slovenskem jeziku glasno pogovarjali. Pristopil je bradati mož in jih prijazno ogovoril v angleščini: ''Oprostite, kateri jezik pa vi govorite, mogoče rusko?'' Odgovorili so mu, da govorijo slovensko in da so se ravno preselili iz Evrope. Pri tem so takoj pomislili, da bo seveda potrebna še razlaga kje Slovenija sploh leži. Na njihovo veliko presenečenje so se neznancu takoj zasvetile oči in navdušeno je v popolni slovenščini pozdravil '' Zdravo, jaz sem Fred''. In tako se je prepletanje niti začelo. Kasneje se jima je v triu pridružil še Luke Plumb, za katerega je Fred zagotovil ''Boš videla Rebeka, on bo razumel slovansko dušo''. In res, pred vami je projekt z naslovom Lastovke, ki združuje niti dveh popolnoma različnih svetov Slovenije in Avstralije, ter jih preplete v čudovito klopčič melodij in zgodb.

Lastovke was formed from a chance encounter of two Slovenian migrants in Hobart, Tasmania. They soon realised a shared professional interest in the performance and development of folk and classical music respectively.

Together with mandolin virtuoso Luke Plumb, they have undertaken a project that explores their migrant perspectives of folk music from both home and new country.