Ruthless Jabiru and Ensemble Offspring’s combined musical programme represents an imagined foray into the sound and emotional landscape of bushfire. Repertoire includes the world premiere of a Ruthless Jabiru-commissioned orchestration of Florence Maunders’ 2021 string quartet, Not Getting Out; regional premieres of four works commissioned by Ensemble Offspring for its acclaimed Songbirds programme (composers Gerard Brophy, Robert Davidson, Brenda Gifford, Nardi Simpson); further European premieres by Brenda Gifford and Holly Harrison; and closing with Thierry Pécou’s epic Rorqual, evoking a scorched apocalypse through the symbolism of the whale: this most ancient of creatures drawing a poetic line to the first Australians, the world’s oldest continuing civilisation.