»Ŋurru Wäŋa« explores notions of home, belonging, and displacement. In the two parts of the title track, Sunny Kim voices Korean poet Yoon Dong Ju’s »Another Home« in counterpoint to Daniel Wilfred’s song in the Wáglilak language. »Ŋurru Wäŋa« (pronounced Wooroo Wanga) translates as »the scent of home«, evoking memory and longing as the bee makes bush honey and the crow circles overhead.

This search for belonging lies at the heart of Hand to Earth, a group of five musicians from different backgrounds and birthplaces. Across six tracks, they map individual journeys and shared connections, creating music that reflects a difficult history, a contested present, and an uncertain future. Electronics, clarinet, trumpet, yidaki, and bilma form a language through which to think, listen, and reimagine.

The central songs of »Ŋurru Wäŋa« were recorded mid-tour in Melbourne, when Daniel Wilfred felt an urge to sing from the song line of Djuwaḻpada, an important figure in Wägilak dreaming. This cycle traces the land from Nyilipidgi in central Arnhem Land to the coast at Lutenbuy, singing places and beings into existence — birds in flight, the seasons, and the Stringybark tree that provides both bark for painting and wood for bilma.

Apart from »The Crow«, recorded in New York, the songs were captured in single takes with voice, bilma, yidaki, and minimal synth drones. Later sessions layered and reshaped these elements, extending the improvisatory spirit of live performance across time and distance. Voices call and answer, resonating and dissolving boundaries, weaving a sound world where connection is both process and outcome.