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Artist
The Merlin Bird
12+ albums
Progressive rockfolkart rockaustralianavant-folk
about
Based in Melbourne Australia, The Merlin Bird play a distinctive brand of rock that reviewers have struggled to categorize. Their work contains elements of rock, folk and classical music, combined with lyrics that explore the worldly, the esoteric and the downright unfathomable. Their debut EP Reason and Rhyme has been described by critics as “mythical”, “a thing of wonderment” and “shivers-down-the-spine good”. They have appeared with progressive rock luminaries Jethro Tull and Asia in Germany, played in London and gigged at a number of Melbourne’s leading venues, as well as the usual complement of places that no-one has ever heard of. The Merlin Bird are: Geoff Dawes (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and – fresh from touring with Mat Kelly – Dan Moloney (drums, percussion and keyboards). The lead female vocals on Reason and Rhyme are taken by Beck Sian, who is cousin once removed to English music diva Kate Bush, and who would seem to have inherited more than her fair share of the family vocal cords. Musically, the band describe themselves as being like Pink Floyd meeting a bad-tempered Enya in an Irish pub owned by Radiohead, as sung by two classically trained singers and one folk one. If truth be told, they can’t really figure it out themselves. Leading local music paper Beat feels the same way, noting that “comparisons are tricky to make, which has got to be a good thing in an age when too many bands sound uncannily like someone else”. They conclude that “The Merlin Bi
