"I didn't know what the hell I was singing about when I was 20," Vika Bull declares with characteristic bluntness. "If punters yell out for those old songs," her sister Linda adds, "we always say, No, sorry, that's another chapter. Maybe we’ll go back there again some day…"

 

Someday does come. It brings unexpected joy, almost unbearable sorrow and other bitter/ sweet developments that trouble and nurture the artist's soul. Between Two Shores is an album born of those forces, songs of love, loss and belonging that resonate more powerfully here and now than ever before.

 

"It was a hard record to make because we lost a close friend on the second day," explains Vika, "and our guitarist Dion (Hirini) was really sick, waiting for a heart operation. If you listen closely you can hear him struggling, breathing."

 

You can also hear him, alongside acoustic bassist Chris Bekker, wringing new shades of emotion from some of the most popular songs of Vika and Linda's career, including Black Sorrows hits they haven't performed in 12 years and classics written for them by some of Australia's greatest songwriters.

 

"I love Vika's version of Never Let Me Go," says Linda, "cause when she sang it (with the Sorrows) she was coming from a younger woman's perspective. There was kind of a 'Don’t mess with me' attitude. Now it's a lot darker. It sounds like she's lived what she's talking about."

 

You can say the same about Linda's more muted, spiritual approach to Cyndi Boste's Holy Waters; a melancholy return to Stephen Cummings's The Blue Hour; and the extraordinary trio of songs that end the album, self-penned portraits of home and family that have grown more vivid and tender with time.

 

Other highlights include a heavy groove version of the Sorrows' hit single of '89, Chained to the Wheel; a reggae take on Mark Seymour's When Will You Fall For Me and a soulful reconstruction of Barry Palmer's Love Comes Easy.   

 

Between Two Shores is the result of two intensive weeks in Studio One, Collingwood in June, 2006. "We worked around the clock, from 11 until 3am," says Linda. "We do two passes on a vocal, then Vika and I pick the eyes out of it. It all happens pretty quick.

 

"As a group, I'm really pleased with how we opened up the songs. Chris and Dion had never heard most of them before so they brought a freshness that Vika and I really needed to sing to. They'll try anything and that makes us try. We really pushed each other."

 

"It's interesting that this record was one of the hardest we’ve ever made," reflects Vika. "Not only because of the songs but because of what happened during recording. Getting through it was pretty tough. But it was worth it."