Fiji
Fiji 1976, by Alastair Edwards
Film footage by my father, Alastair Edwards, in Nadi and around Viti Levu in 1976.
It’s from a couple of years before I was born.
There was no sound, so I’ve added a soundtrack from Ruasagavulu, which Dr Emit Snake-Beings and I recorded in Suva decades later.
My Dad’s interest in film (then video) and photography was one of the influences on my own travel and videomaking. He was doing this long before youtube or instagram!
I miss you Dad…
Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji
Made in Suva, Fiji, the new album by Dave Black & Snake Beings
Mixing these pieces down gives us a new sound for 2020?
This is currently a pre-order work in progress, as some of the mixes will be refined and tracks over the next few weeks.
Instruments used included keyboards, ukulele, DIY kitchen gamelan percussion, duduk, and field recordings.
The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade.
www.snakebeings.co.nz
Dr Emit Snake Beings is a travelling artist/musician/filmmaker/shaman/academic who was an early influence on my music.
Most recently we met up in Suva, Fiji, in November 2019.
Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji
Made in Suva, Fiji, the new album by Dave Black & Snake Beings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZI9NVS1XWk&t=6s&w=280&h=162
This is currently a pre-order work in progress, as some of the mixes will be refined and tracks over the next few weeks.
Instruments used included keyboards, ukulele, kitchen gamelan percussion, duduk, harmonica, and field recordings.
The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade.
Snake Beings and Dave Black in Fiji
A new sound for 2020 perhaps?
2018
The main project for 2018 was Other Islands: 2012-2018;
The last five (of the 20) tracks were recorded in 2018 – each in a different genre:
Isa Lei, and the Yasawa islands, Fiji
This rearrangement of a traditional Fijian folk song was inspired by hearing the song sung there.
In May I visited the Yasawa Islands, to the northwest of Nadi and the main Fijian island Viti Levu.
The boat ride took 3 hours, and enjoyably scenic. Each of the many small islands we passed was different in some way but all stunning
The marine life included
-
- NOVATEK CAMERA
-
- NOVATEK CAMERA
-
- NOVATEK CAMERA
Part of Other Islands: 2012-2018
– recent highlights recorded in New Zealand, Western Australia, Fiji, Indonesia and Okinawa
Other Islands: 2012-2018
fiffdimension vol3
(see also Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 and Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012)
brings us into the current decade – with further wide-ranging experimentation and exploration sonically, temporally and geographically, in New Zealand, Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.
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 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.
-
- The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)
-
- 安里屋ユンタオーバードライブ Asadoya Yunta Overdrive (Okinawa), 2015
-
- in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)
-
- Ngumbang (2015)
-
- The Winter: Exit Points (2015)
-
- The Electricka Zoo (2017)
And hear the previous compilations
