https://www.rrr.org.au/subscriber-giveaways/wilson-tanner-legendsCloses 18 May 2025, 11 pm
Win a copy of AOTW "Legends"
Legends is the third album from beloved duo Wilson Tanner, recorded among the grapevines at Manon Farm in South Australia's Forest Range. The twelve-track collection marks Andrew Wilson (Andras) and John Tanner's (Eleventeen Eston) first release in six years, completing the trilogy they began with their 2016 debut 69 and continued with II in 2019. Where those earlier works settled into the sun-struck torpor of a Perth backyard and drifted off-course on a riverboat on Port Phillip Bay respectively, Legends trades salt air for vineyard sweat, presenting a portrait of Australian viticulture that blends field recordings with deliberately unpolished performances.
Wilson Tanner press their agricultural surroundings into something raw and unfiltered, capturing the scrape of boots on dry earth and workers' radios humming with the summer test cricket season. The album was created without mains electricity on a 600-metre ridge, combining wind instruments, brass, balalaika, balloon sounds, pipes, and synthesizer with the ambient textures of farm life. Through this agricultural haze, an image of a working vineyard emerges - ducks, dogs and plovers intrude; tractors and quads fly-by; stainless steel gleams at the edges. Each track paints a different vignette: 'Cherry' opens like daybreak against an insect chorus, 'Bubbles' surprises with a wonky bossa nova feel, while the title track 'Legends' dances a twisted, wheezy waltz.
The vineyard setting at Manon Farm, run by Tim Webber and Monique Millton using biodynamic principles, provides both the physical and thematic foundation for Legends. This farming approach mirrors Wilson Tanner's own creative process, embracing spontaneity and environmental elements rather than technical perfection. Instruments rigged with wire, tape and string capture loose jam sessions that convey the tranquility of their rural retreat. The feeling of place is so immediate as to make the listener feel they're right there with the duo in the moment of recording.
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