David Bridie and George Telek on the life-changing friendship that led to one of Australia’s best albums

‘We’ve known each other for half our lives’ … David Bridie and George Telek, who have been friends and collaborators since they met in Papua New Guinea in the 1980s. Photograph: Supplied

Sir George Telek is not an easy man to get hold of. For a start, the celebrated Papua New Guinean singer lives in a remote village outside Kokopo, on the island of New Britain. It’s on the eastern edge of the Bismarck archipelago, near Rabaul. Phone lines are often down. I can’t call him; repeated attempts to catch him via WhatsApp fail.

“Welcome to my world,” chuckles his old friend, David Bridie, who eventually helps connect us the morning after Telek has played a show celebrating the 50th anniversary of his country’s independence from Australia in Port Moresby. On Saturday, the pair will reunite to celebrate Tabaran, the album they released in 1990 with Bridie’s band Not Drowning, Waving.