gilli moon and I go back to the mid-to-late 1990s, just before she headed Stateside, her involvement with songsalive, and my retirement from community radio. We had a great chat during one of her Christmas visits and I was part of the promotion of her “Temperamental Angel” (2001) and “Woman” (2003) records. While I might have moved on, gilli has been working harder than ever in polymedia, on five more solo albums and collaborations with life-partner J.Walker, and as label CEO (chief empowerment officer), manager, mentor, publisher, podcaster, and mum.
With the world on hold for the foreseeable future gilli, like many in creative arts, and the world as a whole, has had enough! “The Wait” is her response to the whole pandemic thing but, thankfully, also a prelude to her first full-length album in eighteen months.
The shattered image cover-art shows gilli in PPE whilst holding her hair for fear of tearing it out with frustration. The video shows images of life in lock-down in the United States while she and her daughter prepare for the day. gilli looks immensely tired; her daughter living life as any 5-6yo. She has probably forgotten what we used to call “normal”: this is normal. Musically, the piece starts as gilli looks: slow, tired, but moving ahead because one has to. “It was hard,” she says. “Things have gone awry”. Such an understatement.
It’s not a happy work. It’s not a happy time. There are visions of gilli where I am sure she is ready to just burst into tears. An Australian living in America during these times, seeing what is happening over there whilst hearing from and reading about our experiences cannot be easy, less so with two small children. She even compares what her life would have been if she had stayed in Australia.
A powerful piece for the age.