in a wildflower state (Western Australia, 2013)

In late 2012, after leaving Japan, I moved to Australia for the second time – this time to Western Australia for a couple of years…

in a wildflower state is a lost album – recorded in Perth WA and surrounding regions, between 2012-2014 – unreleased at the time.

The music here is rustic, reflecting the vast ancient arid landscape, overlaid with touches of Nyoongar and bogan sounds. It includes appearances by Nat da Hatt, Cylvi M, and Renato Salvador.

Videos

Tracklist

1.	Didgeridoo overture / overkill 01:47
2.	Dry wind (Fremantle doctor) 01:26
3.	Nat da Hatt + fiffdimension – The Road to Bogandoor (Australian election 2013 mix) 03:46
4.	Sandalwood & Quandong 04:38
5.	Ukulele & magpies 01:23
6.	Kalgoorlie super pit 04:25
7.	Brazilian BBQ (ft Renato Salvador) (bonus) 04:33
8.	Rabbit proof fence (bonus) 03:19
9.	Nat da Hatt + fiffdimension – The Horror (sports mix) (bonus) 03:35
10.	Scabbers’ beach 02:45
11.	Cylvi M – Ode to Ed Kuepper 01:06
12.	Mundaring Weir 01:49
13.	Stomping in Freo (bonus) 02:17
14.	Kalbarri coastline 04:55
15.	Stromatolites 01:49
16.	Inverno ’13 (Indian Ocean sunsets)

Life in Western Australia, 2012-2014

Known as ‘the Wildflower State’, Western Australia covers an enormous area – the size of India, but with a population of under three million. Metaphorically, to be a ‘wildflower’ can also mean a wandering spirit or traveller (such as a kiwi expat on an OE).

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The Winter: Shortest Days 2003-2015

A compilation by Wellington NZ free improv trio The Winter

Simon Sweetman – drums, percussion

Mike Kingston – guitars, cello (2-5), clarinet (7,11,14), charango (7,10)

Dave Edwards – guitars, vocal (3), harmonica (4,7,9), banjo (7), ukulele (7,9,11), saxophone (10,14), piano (10), bass (12,13), electronics (6,8,13)

Wellington, New Zealand,
free improv music trio, formed on winter solstice day June 2003.

An archive compilation,

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2012

2012

part of

Other Islands: 2012-2018 – a compilation of recent highlights, recorded in New Zealand, Western Australia, Fiji, Indonesia and Okinawa

In 2012 I was home in New Zealand for a total of seven days, in July/August. Oherwise it was very much a year of two halves.

Until the end of June I lived in 沖縄 (Okinawa).

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Nat da Hatt and I recorded a track for our duo album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song)

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Other Islands: 2012-2018

“The 20 song album covers traditional Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Asian folk music, to free jazz, and free noise. It’s not for anyone with narrow preconceived ideas about what music is, but it is for everyone else.

“If you have an open inquiring mind and love hearing a variety of sound, this is excellent.” – Darryl Baser, muzic.net.nz

fiffdimension compilation vol3 – (see also Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005, Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012, and águas Brilhantes: 2018-2022)
Made in New Zealand, Okinawa (Japan), Western Australia, Indonesia, and Fiji.

Includes tracks by The Winter, Dave Black & Nat da Hatt, Confluence Quintet, Gamelan Sekar Puri, Gamelan Padhang Moncar, Gamelan Taniwha Jaya, The Electricka Zoo, Dave Black & Snake Beings, Dave Black & Campbell Kneale.

by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, ukulele, sanshin, saron, jublag, demung, vocal), with

Mike Kingston (charango, acoustic guitar),
Simon Sweetman (percussion),
Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards, banjo),
Emit Snake-Beings (banjo, vocal, percussion, flute, electronics),
the Digitator (electric drums, keyboards & loops),
Campbell Kneale (electric guitar, analogue synthesiser),
Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),
Blair Latham (bass clarinet),
Simon O’Rorke (keyboards),
Chris Prosser (violin),
Julie Bevan (acoustic guitar),
plus Indonesian gamelan ensembles led by Sofari Hidayat, Budi Putra, and Gareth Farr,

a song written by my great-great-grandfather John Collie (1856),

and field recordings from Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.

Featuring tracks from the albums

The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)
in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)
ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (2010-15)
Ngumbang (2014-15)
The Winter: Exit Points (2015)
The Electricka Zoo (2017)
and previously unheard tracks.

If you enjoy this, try the previous compilations

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005

安里屋ユンタオーバードライブ Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa)

Here’s a new bonus track we’ve added to the album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song) from 沖縄 (Okinawa).

Dave Black – sanshin, harmonica, field recordings
Nat da Hatt – acoustic & electric guitars, electronics
Cylvi Manthyng – shakuhachi

As you can hear, the music of Okinawa is quite distinct from that of mainland Japan.

East to West: Japan

Back in April we performed Dave Black & Snake Beings: East to West at the Audio Foundation in Auckland. Here’s a first excerpt from the show, which took the audience all the way from NZ to Portugal. This chapter is set in mainland Japan, and takes in Kyoto, Mount Fuji, and 1990s Tokyo. The soundtrack was performed live.

We’ve recorded an album’s worth of material, which is now available: Ngumbang

www.fiffdimension.com www.snakebeings.co.nz

In the meantime for other original music inspired by Japan, and more Japanese mountaineering, see ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes by Dave Black & Nat da Hatt.

ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (Japan, 2012)

Music by Dave Black & Nat da Hatt – two New Zealanders living in Japan. 楽しむことができます!

Listen

About

Like 日本 itself, this music offers a surrealistic fusion of ancient and modern. released 31 January 2014

Crossing the Japan Alps

As well as recording music together, we completed a six-day hiking mission across the northern alps in July 2012, from Kamikochi to Toyama.

Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa)

The album closes with our rendition of a traditional Okinawa shima uta (island song). It’s a tribute to Japan’s southernmost island prefecture, where Dave lived in 2011/12. The ‘overdrive’ is a tribute to early Pink Floyd, reflecting the psychedelic update of the tune.

Credits

Nat da Hatt – electric & acoustic guitars, drum machine, synths, laptop, samples

Click here for Nat da Hatt’s solo albums

Dave Black – bass, banjo, acoustic guitar (5), electric guitar (3), loop pedal, electronics, laptop, field recordings

Tracklist

1.	東京から槍ヶ岳 Tokyo to Yarigatake 03:38
2.	携帯電話 Keitai Denwa 05:43
3.	幸せとは何？What actually is happiness? 04:17
4.	剃毛電球ブルース Shaved Lightbulb Blues 04:18
5.	福岡に到着 Arrival in Fukuoka 04:41
6.	電機市 Denki Ken 03:58
7.	平仮名 Hiragana 04:57
8.	薬師岳から漓江まで Yakushidake to Li Jiang 05:07
9.	安里屋ユンタオーバードライブ Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa) 05:20

Further listening: see ethnomusicology

Dave solo trip across Kyushu, March 2012

Nat da Hatt solo albums

Other duo tracks

Nat da Hatt also contributes guest tracks to

in a Wildflower State (WA, 2013)

and

Gamelan Dimensi Kelima (Indonesia, 2014)

Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012

“This is something that he has to do, that he will do, come fame or oblivion” –Chris Knox

Made in New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.
Includes tracks by Ascension Band, The Winter, Cylvi M, Wellington’s Most Famous Orchestra of Miraculous Delights, Dave Black & Nat da Hatt.

“As Dave Edwards he has explored fuzzy punk, free-jazz, spoken word, alternative-folk and demented pop… as Dave Black, the palette is broadened” – Simon Sweetman

by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, gayageum, vocal), with

Mike Kingston (acoustic guitar),
Simon Sweetman (percussion),
Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards),
Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),
Hayden Gifkins (electric guitar),
Nigel Patterson (hammond organ),
Ryan Prebble (tone generator),
Matthew Thornicroft (electric guitar),
Jeff Henderson (drums),
Noel Meek (vocal),
Hans Landon-Lane (ukulele)
and field recordings from Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.

“Experimental and avant-garde…. There is a clear passion, and a commitment to pushing the boundaries… This will challenge your perceptions of what constitutes music and open the mind to new possibilities of sounds that surround us – muzic.net.nz“

This is a sequel to the Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 compilation.
The third part of the trilogy, Other Islands: 2012-2018, documents my return to NZ via other Asia-Pacific countries,
A fourth volume águas Brilhantes: 2018-2022 covers more recent works made in the Wairarapa and Fiji.

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The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)

Acoustic instrumental music by Wellington, New Zealand, improvising trio The Winter.

Mike Kingston: charango, guitar, clarinet

Dave Edwards: ukulele, sanshin, tenor sax, piano

Simon Sweetman: xylophone, percussion

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Okinawa, Japan 沖縄日本

ハイサイ! イチャリバチョデ! よろしくおねがいします。きょ-ねん那覇市にすんでいましたとにほんごちょっとべんきょしました。

In 2011-2012 I lived in Naha (那覇市), the main city of Okinawa Prefecture (沖縄県) in Japan (日本).

Nat da Hatt and I recorded a track for our duo album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes there – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song)

The Ryukyu Islands are a whole other world from mainland Japan – there’s no Mt Fuji, samurai, sumo wrestling, geisha or shinkansen. They have a different culture, food, climate and music – more tropical and laidback, the Hawaii of northeast Asia, with jungle, sugar cane, beautiful sea and coral – umi to sango wa totemo kirei desu ne – and wonderful people and tragic history.

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