CELEBRATED folk singer Kavisha Mazzella says her latest album, Love & Sorrow, is all about “journeying out of sorrow and trusting life again”.

So it seemed fitting that the album be launched at Montsalvat during the final week of the gallery’s present exhibition, Symbols of Loss and Recovery.

Mazzella, a former Eltham and Panton Hill resident, said the exhibition of works inspired by the Black Saturday bushfires and two years of recovery, provided a compelling and inspiring context to her own work.

“It was pure coincidence, I only realised when I walked in last week and saw the works on show,” Mazzella said.

“I am really excited to be doing this show with works expressing such sadness, beauty and hope.”

Mazzella, who has released six albums - including the ARIA award-winning 1998 effort Fisherman’s Daughter - has performed and run songwriting and choral workshops across the world since 1990.

She was awarded a Member of the  Order of Australia Medal (AM) this year for her work in multicultural, indigenous and refugee issues.

The medal, in part, recognised her performances of human rights-inspired music at schools and her work with the Fitzroy Learning Network multicultural neighbourhood house.

The Brunswick resident said her music was influenced by “stories of people experiencing difficulty”. “The first song on the new album is about this gypsy guy I met at a small festival in the south of France,” she said.

“He had cancer and said he wanted to end it all.

“But then he realised he would rather see Manitas De Plata, a legendary gypsy guitarist, play.”