The Doomed Bird Of Providence is a vehicle for Mark Klusek to write and sing about the grim side of Australia's colonial history.
His latest short song cycle is loosely based on the life of Maria Murray a former slave and convict who was found guilty of knifing one William Mair in 1825.
The death sentence for this murder was subsequently commuted to transportation. In Van Dieman's Land, Murray married, had a child and ran a boarding hostel. She eventually received a conditional pardon and died of consumption.
One imagines Klusek admires the resilient spirit of this woman although the sombre, funereal tone of the record focuses on the tragic and bloody details so is far from celebratory.
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Compressed into just 18 minutes worth of four dark and dirgey sea shanties, it is as though her life story being recounted by a drunken sailor.
The string arrangements are striking but the confused perspective of the songs, which shift between the first, second and third person, fails to bring any genuine pathos to the tale.
The Doomed Bird Of Providence's website
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