Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly – (Hear The) Falling Dew
From Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly – SCRA
Released on M7, 1972, Australia

We’re back after a Christmas break with this peaceful piece of perfectly orchestrated pop from Australia.

Hidden in the middle of a quite generic album of jazz-rock, (Hear The) Falling Dew is a soothing ballad with an impressively good arrangement. Blending elements we love here, such as a nice CTI-sounding flute solo and an unsettling juxtaposition of Sheryl Black‘s soft voice complex vocal harmonies, the songs is much more than a generic early-70’s mellow pop song, reaching for a more sophisticated direction than it first seemed, implied by an elegant and rich arrangement, and reminding  of beautiful moments on Sven Libaek‘s soundtracks (a SCRA‘s brilliant contemporary fellow countryman).

Though we can consider Southern Contemporay Rock Assembly as a minor fusion band from the Australian scene, the band was host to A LOT of Australian musicians that would later play on many Aussie jazz albums such as trombonist Greg Foster or bassist Dave Ellis. This short-lived musical hub unwillingly worked as a showcase for a new generation of jazz musicians for the Island, providing some other solid songs, especially some other simple and non-pretentious ballads.

We’re glad to begin this new year with something simple, humble, fragile… and yet beautiful and touching !