Outback

Outback cultivates an energetic yet unpredictable approach that earns the label "tribal new-acoustic." Two versatile players, Graham Wiggins and Martin Craddick, form the ensemble’s core; they first crossed paths by accident in Oxford during 1988 and soon toured England together as a duo. Wiggins, once a jazz pianist, mastered the didgeridoo—an Australian aboriginal wind instrument fashioned from a hollowed wooden tube, occasionally rendered didjeridu—on his own. Various methods, among them circular breathing, allow the instrument to yield a raw, textured tone that occasionally borders on electronic. When paired with Craddick’s acoustic guitar and mandolin, the didgeridoo acquires an unexpected rustic character reminiscent of a mouth harp’s ringing pluck. Building on the reception of their debut international album Baka, the pair broadened the project by incorporating Sagar N’Gom’s West African percussion and Ian Campbell’s drumming. French fiddle player Paddy LeMercier appears on the group’s most recent recording, Dance the Devil Away.