Dream #12 by Mess Esque, Mick Turner, McKisko

To say goodbye to last year's 'Private Eyes' series, we are very happy to present an uplifting yet wistful record from Mess Esque, a new collaboration between Mick Turner of Dirty Three and Meanjin (Brisbane) based artist Helen Franzmann a.k.a McKisko. The duo's forthcoming album, Dream #12, is a collection of works that were recorded remotely across Naarm (Melbourne) and Meanjin over the course of 2020.

"Even though both Dirty Three and my solo output are instrumental, I was writing material that I felt needed lyrics. Being a below average singer myself I was looking for a vocalist/lyricist to help turn these music ideas into songs.." -- Mick Turner

The release's first single, 'Big Old Blue', perfectly pairs Mick's gentle and warm guitar with Helen’s optimistic songwriting and sleepy tender whispers. Speaking about the single's intention Helen reveals “Big Old Blue is a nod to the natural world as a soothing salve. For me anyway. Also I watched Luc Besson's 'The Big Blue' around the time of writing this song which may have influenced the name.”

The words came together as Helen was falling asleep one night and she was able to capture them on her phone, recording in the early hours of the night after.

“My house is close to a noisy road so recording had to happen at 2am to catch vocals without traffic/street spill. All of the vocals for this album were done in my bedroom or bathroom at that time. I’d record, send and fall into bed without doing a whole lot of listening back.”

Mess Esque’s debut lullaby 'Big Old Blue' is out everywhere March 12. The duo's debut album, and the last instalment in the Private Eyes: Australian Music in Isolation series (for now), is out April 2.

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