Following his overwhelming 2023 release, Ghost Music, Australian cosmic drifter, Michael Plater, continues to be inspired by the world’s darkest corners.
Ghost Music was the kind of album artists finish their tenure on. Thematically alluring to the point where his songs are like prose dripping off the page, the depth to Plater’s songs is something that anyone would struggle to replicate.
Two years on, and Plater returns with a collaboration that skirts along the same dark frontiers that made Ghost Music one of the finest releases from Australian shores this decade. Alongside Italian multi-instrumentalist, Massimiliano Gallo (violin, piano, percussion, melodica), and Greek electronic artist Tasos Koromilas (synths, percussion), The Right Hand Is Doomed to Blacken emerged from the creative embers of Plater’s recent European tour in late 2024.
Playing a 10-day residency at the Greenbridge arts space in Trikala, Greece last November, Plater performed an improvised set alongside Gallo and Koromilas, which was recorded and is now presented as the trio’s debut release, Greenbridge 12.11.24.
A 50-minute feat that stretches across borderless territory, Greenbridge 12.11.24 sees Plater immersed in the long-form, and guided by Koromilas’ searching synths and Gallo’s assortment of rich arrangements, this milieu suits the songwriter well. Plater’s deep baritone vocal, barrelling through the vortex as the trio begin with Spiral.
The Right Hand Is Doomed to Blacken: Greenbridge 12.11.24A haunting ballad that rumbles through the roadhouse, Spiral sees Plater part with an abstract folk tale that consists of lost ships and spiralled shells that twist around the heart. A story pieced together like musings from a scrapbook, Koromilas’ static drones and Gallo’s jaundiced keys combine to form a backdrop likened to mist across the high seas.
Next is Antipodes, which begins as something echoing The Necks’ Chris Abrahams backing the new-era Bad Seeds. Slowly unravelling into an spiritual folk drone stanza, Plater takes centre stage with a tale seemingly inspired by some religious group in outback Australia. “Like prayers to some God you’ve never known / And you kneel to feel that you’re not so alone,” Plater sings in a performance so fierce it’s almost like he’s method acting as a holy leader, as Gallo and Koromilas’ stifling arrangements match the thematical weight.
At just under 30 minutes, We Gather the Fragments sees Koromilas lay the foundations with an electro pulse that echoes across the same vast lands that inspire Plater’s stories. And adding the relevant shades of darkness as only he knows, the trio end Greenbridge 12.11.24 with another haunting tale that moves to places that illuminate obscurity and dread.
So crisp and layered in sound, you wouldn’t know this was a live performance, and despite the relevant touches from behind the mixing desk, kinetic energy remains in these recordings. Something that makes everything feel more alive, crystallising the reality to these songs.
Greenbridge 12.11.24 is out on May 30 via Cruel Nature. Pre-order from Bandcamp.
