Big wins for muso taking didgeridoo global

Musician William Barton has won two gongs at the 2022 Screen Music Awards, just hours after being named Queensland's Australian of the Year.

Barton won Best Soundtrack Album and Best Original Song for the soundtrack to the Australian film River with fellow composers Piers Burbrook de Vere and Richard Tognetti, who worked on the music together.

The musicians met at Tognetti's home studio for an initial recording session, and as Barton watched the film, he improvised with his voice to create a haunting soundtrack.

"I wanted to connect to my ancestors and sing up country, bring that country with me, that's what my people used to do and still do," he said.

River is narrated by Willem Dafoe and explores the relationship between humans and rivers around the world with stunning cinematography, including satellite images. 

Barton, a Kalkadunga man, wants people to reflect on an Indigenous approach to caring for waterways, and told AAP his people protected the rivers and native springs around Mt Isa, where he grew up.

"The first nations peoples of the world looked after the landscape and the rivers without polluting, just using what they needed to," he said.

At the screen awards night in Melbourne on Tuesday, he performed How We Feel from the River soundtrack, and took part in a musical tribute for Uncle Jack Charles and Uncle Archie Roach, who died earlier in 2022.

It's been a busy time for the multi-instrumentalist, who had to miss out on Queensland's Australian of the Year awards, with both ceremonies on the same night.

Just days ago he was performing at the MCG for the T20 World Cup final.

"I was on top of the scoreboard, on top of the roof basically, hanging on the edge ... well, not quite close to the edge," he joked.

Barton is known worldwide for his didgeridoo playing, having performed at the Vatican, Anzac Cove, the Beijing Olympics, and even Westminster Abbey before Queen Elizabeth II.

He moves with apparent ease between the worlds of classical music, jazz and rock, and is just as comfortable onstage with the London Philharmonic as he is with Iva Davies and Icehouse.

"I guess it comes from being truthful, that vibe or that path becomes strong when you're truthful in the language of the instrument," he said.

The didgeridoo has long had a huge following worldwide, according to Barton, especially across Europe and Japan.

He remembers playing at a festival in the city of Maribor in Slovenia some years ago, and seeing the Maribor didgeridoo society in the audience.

More recently in Munich, Germany, he needed some extra didgeridoos tuned to different keys, and after ringing a friend, within a few hours he had several more traditional ones, made in Australia.

The instrument is still finding new audiences, and Barton said although the didgeridoo is widely known in the US alternative music scene, it's still relatively unknown in classical circles there.

"There's still people who are hearing the instrument for the first time, that's a beautiful thing, and they're getting a sense of the feeling of Australia," he said.

"I always tell people when I meet with them overseas, come to Australia and experience the natural landscape, where it comes from."

2022 SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS

* Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen Award - Nigel Westlake.

* Feature Film Score of the Year - The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, by Salliana Seven Campbell.

* Best Television Theme: New Gold Mountain, by Caitlin Yeo. 

* Best Music for a Television Series or Serial: Total Control, by Antony Partos and Matteo Zingales.

* Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie: New Gold Mountain, by Caitlin Yeo.

* Best Soundtrack Album: River, by Richard Tognetti with William Barton and Piers Burbrook de Vere.

* Best Original Song Composed for the Screen: Spirit Voice of the Enchanted Waters, from River.

* Best Music for a Documentary: Puff: Wonders of the Reef, by Hylton Mowday.

* Best Music for a Short Film: Still Life, by Wil Hughes.

* Best Music for Children's Programming: The Deep, by Nerida Tyson-Chew.

* Best Music for an Advertisement: Destination NSW: Feel New by Lance Gurisik.