After a world tour, album release and appearance on essential music show Later with Jools Holland – Gurrumul somehow managed to squeeze in a performance last night, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

t5m has long been a fan of Gurrumul having seen him perform earlier this year, and have since been enamoured with his haunting and totally unique sound. Born blind, Gurrumul combines the humility, calm and history of his Gumatj clan with eerily memorable contemporary song – and last night, at the Southbank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Gurrumul performed to a full house, conveying the essence of his people, his life and his story accompanied by just a bass, orchestral strings and occassional vocal backing.

Songs such as Mawula, Bapa and Gurrumul’s Story danced over his acoustic guitar, and are written, performed and arranged in such a similar way that it almost sounds like one piece of music – had it not been for the anecdotal interuptions of his producer Michael Hohnen…

Gurrumul performed for just under an hour, dipping into his album and also playing a previously unheard track about the ’salt water crocodile’ one of Gurrumul’s birth totems – with some very impressive improvisation from the strings! But during this song, and his reggae-influenced number as well, it became clear that in order to develop, or progress Gurrumul’s music, there will inevitably be a movement away from his original sound and authenticity.

As an artist who occupies such a niche place in music - performing songs in his traditional dialect and with such a unique tone and key, it begs the question how ‘varied’ and ‘different’ his music can be? However, having witnessed yet another breath taking performance from one of Australia’s ‘hidden treasures, not national treasures’ - I think perhaps audiences will be happy with Gurrumul staying just the way he is…