SELECTED WORKS #007

The Quiet Earth/Aotearoa Ambient, Olga Tokarczuk, Dublab, Radio Alhara

THE QUIET EARTH - FIVE AMBIENT RECORDS FROM AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND

In 1985, New Zealand filmmaker Geoff Murphy, fresh off directing Goodbye Pork Pie and Utu, completed his hat-trick of cult classics with The Quiet Earth. Starring the striking musician and actor Bruno Lawrence (of BLERTA), and set in the wake of a cataclysmic event, The Quiet Earth depicts a scientist rambling through an empty, post-apocalyptic New Zealand, slowly beginning to lose his mind before discovering two other survivors. I won’t ruin the rest of the storyline, but in its spare emptiness and sense of decay, The Quiet Earth captures a feeling that often reminds of ambient and environmental music recorded in New Zealand. 

I’m talking about quiet, still and reflective compositions with a calm surface that masks deeper emotional depths. The sort of emotional depths you have to listen closely to hear and feel, or perhaps let catch you off guard at an unexpected time. Anyway, at some point over the last couple of weeks, I realised that a bunch of New Zealand records have turned up on Bandcamp recently. I figured I’d write up some recommendation blurbs for five of them.     

Ariana Tikao | Al Fraser, Nau mai e kä hua (Rattle Records)

Two of the leading players of Taonga pūoro (the indigenous musical instruments of Aotearoa New Zealand) come together to record a tribute to the waters of Te Wai Pounamu (the south island) for Rattle Records, the pre-eminent local art music label. Blending improvisations, spoken word and waiata (song) with a rich range of Taonga pūoro, Nau mai e kä hua’s 13 parts are a masterclass in environmental music. Within every composition, the natural landscape of Aotearoa’s south island and the vibrancy of the rivers that run through it, and the ocean waters that lap against its coastline come through with pristine clarity. Music from the past, present and the future. 

Jet Jaguar, Quiet 1999-2019 (Cudighi Records)

For over twenty years now, the Wellington-based laptop music and sonic experimentalist (as in experiments, not putting reverb on something and calling it experimental) Michael Upton aka Jet Jaguar has been making increasingly quieter songs. Quiet 1999-2019, his new collection within Los Angeles’ Cudighi Records honours this gradual vanishing act by charting the increasingly backseat role beats, and volume has played in Michael’s music over time. All written and composed by Michael, except for a co-write with Kurodama, and some violin from Heather Elder, Quiet 1999-2019 is a testament to imagination, persistence, consistency. There are dreamscapes here, but also a lot of reality, and guess what, reality can be a dream as well. 

rotor plus, FUGUE STATES -Before- (Self-Released)

The first of a 2-part series FUGUE STATES -Before- by Dunedin’s rotor plus, uses musical composition to explores the fugue state, a dissociative disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality. Working with a cast of string, woodwind, brass and synthesiser players, rotor plus crafts beautifully cinematic and evocative pieces. Musical phrases slide between instruments, like an individual slipping between identities, or an identity sliding between bodies (or perhaps simulacrum). Over 12 movements, FUGUE STATES -Before- suggests itself as a larger metaphor for our collective experiences over the last year. Magical stuff.  

Rhian Sheehan, Recollections, Vol.2 (Loop Recordings)

Rhian Sheehan, the Wellington composer who effortlessly navigates the slipstreams between atmospheric-post-rock with electronic and chamber music, has long crafted work that treats nostalgia and possibility like few others. Recollections, Vol.2, a 22-track collection of unreleased material, live recordings and remastered versions of past ambient pieces reiterates the scope and depth of his vision with telling heft. Note by note, these songs and compositions throw the magic and mystery of everyday life into sharp relief. In a testament to his power as an Imagineer, Rhian’s skill set has seen him compose for space centres, documentaries, films and advertising campaigns. Still, all he needs to make you feel something is a Bandcamp link.

Te Aorangi, an ocean’s worth (Self-Released)

Over the last three years, Auckland’s sound recordist, composer and producer Te Aorangi has released a steady stream of ambient/environmental projects on Bandcamp. Nature field recordings, mostly bird song, rivers and beachside at the ocean are some of the common threads through their fittingly titled recent release an ocean’s worth. Wrapped in synthesised strings and pads, subtle electronics and guest guitar and vocals from rama buisson and yusuf guessous (on ‘intro’ and ‘know that i am’ respectively), the album’s seven songs are a blissful balm, one which while full of optimism and appreciation for nature, carries an ominous edge. You know the score with nature, if you don’t respect it, it won’t respect you. 

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:

Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

First published in Polish in 2009, and translated into English in 2018, Man Booker International Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is a strikingly unique novel. In the woods near a rural Polish village, an aging woman who calls everyone not by their name, but by a name that describes how they are, is plunged into two local murder mysteries. As they unfold, she recounts stories of her life, and stories of the lives around her, before the book slowly smoulders towards a surprising conclusion. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is a multiple murder mystery. It's also an essay on our lives and how they relate to the world around them. Shades of William Blake rippling through the entirety of its remarkable narrative. (buy here)

WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:

Last week, Katie Brown from The May Project interviewed me for The May Magazine, her new digital media platform. As part of the interview, I curated a Spotify playlist of music I’ve been introduced to by New York label Frederiksberg Records. (listen here)

In October 2018, I went on a trip to Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong. Afterwards, I recorded a mix of Japanese city-pop, techno-pop and ambient intros, outros and interludes for Scratcha DVA’s Interlude FM. I’ve just re-uploaded it on mixcloud. (listen here)

At the start of October this year, I put a post up on Instagram asking people to recommend their favourite songs about flowers. Once the list got past ten, I turned it into a spotify playlist called Songs About Flowers. You can listen to it (here).

WHAT I’VE GOT COMING UP:

In Selected Works #006, I mentioned that I’d recorded a sequel to my Closer: Street Soul & Swingbeat from Aotearoa New Zealand mix. I’ve titled it Seasons and on Monday 30 Nov, the excellent Los Angeles-based online radio station/community Dublab are airing it between 12:00-01:00pm PST. Head over to their website for more details (click here)

I’ve also got a mix of contemporary ambient, jazz, beats, house, techno, rap and spoken word from Aotearoa New Zealand in the works for Bethlehem and Ramallah’s Radio Alhara راديو الحارة in Palestine. Word is they’ll be airing it from 5-6pm Bethlehem time on Sunday 29th November.