East of West drift into deeper waters on new album: Velella
We last caught up with Queensland instrumental trio, East of West, in 2025 when they released their album Pastorale featuring Romano Crivici. This month, the band takes us into deeper waters with their 4th studio album, “Velella.”
The album takes its name from Velella velella, the “by-the-wind sailor,” a tiny ocean-dwelling organism carried across the water by the breeze. It is an apt image for music that feels similarly unmoored, drifting between places, rhythms and moods without ever losing its direction.
Across the record, the ARIA-nominated group refine their distinctive blend of Balkan and Mediterranean influences. Recorded live in Brisbane by Melbourne-based engineer Siiri Metsar and mastered by Michael Lynch at Shoehorse Sound, Velella captures the intuitive musical relationship East of West have developed over eight years together. Goran Gajić’s double bass, Philip Griffin’s guitar, and Malindi Morris’ percussion move between tightly constructed unison passages to open-ended improvisation with remarkable ease.
On Velella, the trio deliberately gives its improvised sections more space and significance. Rather than existing merely as bridges between written melodies, the solos and group conversations become central parts of each composition. Morris is also given more room to explore open percussion passages, adding another layer of movement and unpredictability to the album.
The record’s nine pieces draw inspiration from landscapes, family gatherings, elusive birds and personal histories. “Green Clouds” evokes the heavy stillness of a storm gathering on a hot Queensland afternoon, while “Spring Street” remembers a chaotic, communal apartment building in Brisbane’s West End. “Gathering” reflects on a spontaneous dinner involving more than 50 relatives in Leigh, New Zealand, and “Overseas” considers the contrast between landlocked journeys from Bosnia and life in an Australia surrounded by ocean.
Elsewhere, Griffin’s “Camille” unfolds in a gently rolling 11/8 rhythm, while the brilliantly titled “A Distinct Lack of Parrotfinch” explores expectation and frustration through an unlikely 50/8 time signature.
“I attempted to find a groove in a time signature I’d never played,” explains Philip when talking about the 50/8 time signature on “A Distinct Lack of Parrotfinch.” “Naturally, my aim is for it to sound and feel good (and never academic), above all other considerations.”
Despite its rhythmic complexity, Velella never feels overly technical. The trio’s playing is measured, warm and remarkably fluid, allowing intricate ideas to emerge naturally from the music. Like leaves (or jellyfish) moving in the wind, no passage repeats in quite the same way.
With Velella, East of West have created an album that feels both meticulously arranged and completely free; music suspended somewhere between composition and conversation, carried forward by instinct.
Get your copy of the album now: available now on 4000 Records.
