Category: video

águas brilhantes: 2018​-​2022

“We go from bossa nova rhythms to folk to RIO to indie to, what is interesting listening if nothing else, a dog howling along to a banjo (Oscar’s Blues) […] and songs taken from Poems & Lyrics (in the Scotch dialect) (1856), where Dave paid tribute to his ancestor John Collie who wrote a book of poems more than 150 years ago.

“It is unusual to find someone playing so confidently in such diverse areas, and anyone into independent music will certainly find something on here to enjoy – Kev Rowland, muzic.nz

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About

águas brilhantes (or ‘glistening waters’ in English) is the Portuguese translation of Wairarapa, the Māori name of the region where I’ve lived the last few years.

My ancestors arrived here in the 19th century – one was a Scottish poet, another a stowaway from the Azores islands.

This compilation includes pieces inspired by the region and my ancestors, and new and old collaborators – including a torch-passing to younger members of my family.

Credits1

by Dave Edwards – guitars, bass, banjo, harmonica, vocal, lyrics

with

released December 22, 2022

Tracklist

1.Nat da Hatt + James Robinson + Dave Black – June’s Lounge, part 2 02:08
2.The Electricka Zoo – Inverno (live at Escape Velocity, 2018) 03:47
3.Campbell Kneale + fiffdimension – Both Chords 02:07
4.Celeste Rochery – My Native Land (John Collie, 1856) 01:56
5.The Blast of a Wintry Day (John Collie, 1856 – live at Wairarapa TV, 2019) (bonus) 03:44
6.Clever Hansel – Sonnet on Summer (John Collie, 1856) 03:19
7.snakebeings + fiffdimension – Walu (Fiji) 03:02
8.snakebeings + fiffdimension – Io (Fiji) 01:31
9.Larry Irava – Isa Lei Lia (Fiji) 04:38
10.Ilhas Atlânticas (Manuel José Bernard, das Flores, 1862) 03:12
11.Here’s a Health to my Cronies (John Collie, 1856) 02:46
12.Auld Satan when ye first gae through (John Collie, 1856) 02:02
13.Logistical Torrents (lockdown 2020) 03:07
14.Guitar Ringtone 02:07
15.The Troubled Times – Blinking in Daylight (return of the sun, 2021) 03:05
16.Clever Hansel – The Land of my Youth (John Collie, 1856) 03:57
17.The Troubled Times – Wairarapa Bossa Nova 03:18
18.James Robinson + fiffdimension – Old Brain (metadada of Oceania remembering) 03:21
19.The Troubled Times – The Dying Monarch (John Collie, 1856) 03:05
20.Ilhas novos (do sul) 01:20
21.Classical Rain Bucket 01:41
22.James Robinson + The Troubled Times – The Edge (a Negentropic Diatribe) 03:25
23.Tony Was Here (live at the Miracle Room, 2022) 03:25
24.Oscar – Oscar’s Blues 01:28
25.By my faith sirs, this canna lang dee (John Collie, 1856) 04:04
26.さくらさくら / Paetumokai (Pua pua i te Kōanga) 02:10
27.O Henry Ending (live at the Miracle Room, 2022) 08:00

Features previously unreleased recordings, and tracks from

Further listening: the albums

Live 2019

Continue reading “águas brilhantes: 2018​-​2022” →

Escape Velocity: the Electricka Zoo live

New live album!

With New Zealand in lockdown this might be the next best thing to an actual gig..

Track 1 recorded live at the Fringe Bar, Wellington NZ, 27-02-18

Tracks 2-7 recorded live at Escape Velocity, Featherston NZ, 10-03-18

As part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival

credits

The Digitator – midi, laptop, vocal
Dave Black – bass, electric guitar

www.fiffdimension.com/the-electricka-zoo

Glimpses of Utopia (2020)

Palette-cleansing electric solo improvisations.

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About

Recorded solo in Featherston, New Zealand, 2019-20.

Not specifically a ‘lockdown album’, but nonetheless recorded solo at home during the pandemic.

It marked the emergence of a new ‘late period‘ solo style.

I’m not a trained jazz musician, but nor do I fit neatly into the ‘NZ noise‘ genre.

Tracklist

1.Abbadebdab 03:00
2.October ring 03:37
3.11 through the viewer 7 (acoustic) 01:24
4.Torrential logistics 04:05
5.Usquebaugh 03:53
6.Walking through an aye (in Paparoa national park) 03:53
7.Solstice Shards 19 05:07
8.Teenager 01:39

Further listening

Continue reading “Glimpses of Utopia (2020)” →

Loose Autumn Moans (2003)

“Wellington, NZ composer Dave Edwards with some able assistance from duo or trio the Winter... Guitars, violin, cello, and percussion all stack up… He’s got a persona that’s all his own.” – George Parsons, Dream Magazine #5

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About

All acoustic, no overdubs, and complete with a string section! Recorded and mixed on analogue equipment, and originally released on cassette in 2003 – new 2020 remaster.

“Edwards‘ art is always an interactive experience, and the spontaneous nature of his audio output encourages descriptions such as abrasive, discordant, sombre and atmospheric. Such adjectives contribute but never tell the whole tale.” – Real Groove

The album is structured as a progression from summer. The cover image shows a NZ pohutukawa tree in flower. It continues through autumn, a time of harvest, preparation, shortening daylight, and the shedding of old dead layers.

It finishes with an extended live version of ‘O Henry Ending‘, recorded at the Winter’s first gig.

“O Henry falling leaves & branches, talk a worried sad refrain

Your eyes half tilt, your brain half mast

To tie the fond anonymous bond beyond yr aching shelter lying walls

That fall to fall, & raise the days, museum haze …”

Credits

Dave Edwards (archtop acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocal, lyrics)

Sam Prebble (violin) / Mike Kingston (cello)

sam & san

Simon Sweetman (percussion)

simon w newspaper

Recorded in Wellington, NZ, 2003

Tracklist

1.
Summer Skin 06:19
2.
Mouth of the Caveman 03:26
3.
The Hurricane Wrangle (Live at BATS Theatre) 07:22
4.
Redressing Depression Regression 06:02
5.
The Winter – O Henry Ending (Live at Photospace) 12:46

Dedication: Bond Street Bridge

Loose Autumn Moans is dedicated to Sam Prebble (aka Bond Street Bridge), who died in 2014.

Rest easy Sam, and thank you..

Further listening

The Winter: Shortest Days 2003-2015

Continuing the seasonal theme, Dave Edwards, Mike Kingston, and Simon Sweetman (occasionally joined by Sam Prebble) formed a regular free improvising instrumental trio , the Winter.

The Winter live at Photospace Gallery, July 2003 (photo by James Gilberd)

“A strange sonic brew that includes dissonant rock textures, rough outsider folk-blues mysteries, electric and acoustic improvisations and a considerable part of tasty feedback. Imagine equal parts Derek Bailey, New Zealand’s Pumice and classic ’60s blues/folk and you’re in the right ballpark.” – The Broken Face

After the Filmshoot (2002)

The original C60 cassette release of Loose Autumn Moans included solo interludes recorded the previous year, in 2002. These have since been reissued as a separate album.

By shortening to just the 2003 ensemble sessions, Loose Autumn Moans becomes concise. It emphasises the lyrics, and the jazzy acoustic instrumental interplay.

After Maths & Sciences (2005)

A different take of ‘O Henry Ending‘ was recorded in Melbourne, Australia in 2005. I had just bought a banjo (which I still have), Mike Kingston played acoustic guitar this time, and Francesca Mountfort took the cello role, along with Cylvi M on percussion.

While much of the album was in a new style, incorporating electronica and field recordings, ‘O Henry Ending’ and the presence of fellow expat kiwis provided a thematic bridge from the Wellington days.

Acoustic yin / Electric yang – 2CD 1998-2023

To illustrate how a song can be interpreted in multiple ways, the fiffdimension 25th anniversary 2CD features Mouth of the Caveman – and both the 2005 Melbourne version and a new (2022) a live electric arrangement of O Henry Ending

Live 2019 and Live 2022-24

Three of the Loose Autumn Moans tracks were revived in new solo arrangements for these more recent live albums:

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 compilation

Tracks from Loose Autumn Moans also appear on this compilation, that gives an overview of the early years.

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856).

My great-great-grandfather (himself a young man at the time) self-published a book of poems in 19th century Scotland. It includes a piece about Autumn.

Adapting John Collie’s words to music is a current major work-in-progress, that .allows a new ‘mature’ version of my acoustic style, and shows the early works, like Loose Autumn Moans, in a new light!

Ruasagavulu

Out now – the new album

by Dave Black & Dr Emit Snake-Beings

Made in Fiji

“So easy to get totally lost in this music, recommend for helping with your inner peace” – Andi Verse

Indo-Fijian inspired tropical devotional avant-garde instrumentals for keyboards, ukulele, dholak, duduk, harmonicas, DIY kitchen gamelan, and video.

  

Snake Beings & Dave Black in Fiji

This was one of the last in-person international collaborations from before the world ended… it’s got nothing to do with the pandemic.

It was recorded in Suva, Fiji, 2nd and 4th of November 2019.

The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade optimistically.

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Further listening

Our first duo recording was ‘Ngumbang‘  (2015) –

a fusion of several genres and a DIY manifesto – “Pick up the pieces and make them into something new, it’s what we do…”

Continue reading “Ruasagavulu” →

Fiji 1976, by Alastair Edwards

Film footage by my father, Alastair Edwards (1936-2010), in Nadi and around Viti Levu in 1976.

It’s from my parents’ honeymoon, 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 key influences on my own travel and videomaking. He was doing this long before youtube or instagram!

I miss you Dad…

First Time Around: South Korea (2008)

– field recordings, electro-acoustic ethnography, Asian industrial soundscapes

by kiwis in South Korea, 2007–2008

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Before there was ‘Gangnam Style‘ there was 영통동버스 노래 (Yeongtongdong Bus Song) 

Credits

Recorded in Suwon and Busan, Republic of Korea, 2007-2008

Dave Black – field recordings, laptop, gayageum, loops, bass, acoustic guitar, vocal

Cylvi M – tangso, shakuhachi, shaker, vocal

  • Busan, South Korea
  • Dave and Cylvi at Dadaepo beach, Busan, South Korea
  • Korean gayageum, 2007
  • Busan, South Korea
  • Busan, South Korea
  • Geumjeong, Busan, South Korea
  • Busan, South Korea
  • Suwon, South Korea

The pieces here are made from remixed field recordings of traditional Korean musicians, and instruments such as the gayageum, taepyongso, buddhist chants and samulnori drumming, plus our live version of the folk song ‘Arirang’.

Tracklist

1.영통동버스 노래 (Yeongtongdong Bus Song) 02:30
2.음악에 귀 결정적인 음악 관리자 (A Decisive Music Administrator (with an ear for music)) 03:18
3.물주세요 (Mool Chuseyo (give me water)) 01:47
4.동래의 행정 장관의 사무실 (Office of the Dongnae Magistrate) 03:34
5.동쪽에서 서쪽을 충족 (Konglish Cananglish (east meets west)) 01:49
6.부산 대학교 땅땅 (PNU Pounding (Arirang Blues)) 03:28
7.아리랑 (Arirang (live in Busan)) 04:43

Further listening

Continue reading “First Time Around: South Korea (2008)” →

Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji

Made in Suva, Fiji – the new album by Dave Black & Dr Emit Snake-Beings

“So easy to get totally lost in this music, recommend for helping with your inner peace” – Andi Verse

 

Indo-Fijian inspired tropical devotional avant-garde instrumentals for keyboards, ukulele, dholak, duduk, harmonicas, DIY kitchen gamelan, and video.

This was one of the last in-person international collaborations from before the world ended.

 The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade.

recorded in Suva, Fiji, 2nd November 2019

Further listening

Our first duo recording was ‘Ngumbang‘  (2015) –

Continue reading “Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji” →

New Year’s Day 2020

2019 roundup

At the end of the decade, and looking for a way to follow up the eclectic Asia-Pacific Odyssey of Other Islands: 2012-2018, I stripped things back down to the solo acoustic format of my early years with Live 2019.

The set, at Wairarapa TV in Masterton, New Zealand, was streamed live on the internet on 4th of May 2019.

For the past couple of years I’ve been living in a small town and don’t get to as many gigs as I used to… so here was an opportunity to use 21st century technology to play ‘virtually’ everywhere.

On the other hand musically this was closer to a traditional folk/singer-songwriter set than I’d done for quite a while. I eschewed dissonant improv, multitracking, live backing musicians, field recordings, or electronic trickery this time, and used just acoustic guitar, banjo, and harmonica (and a few seconds of wah pedal on ‘Eastern’).

The set was followed by an interview.

I also released a companion album to Live 2019 – its stroppier lo-fi postpunk ‘official bootleg’ predecesor Live 1999. This was recorded on cassette 20 years (or half my lifetime) ago, when I opened for Chris Knox at Bar Bodega in Wellington NZ last millennium:

Live 1999

I started and finished both live sets on the same two songs, to show continuity and evolution.

It’s been quite a journey in between!

Other projects

My other 2019 works in progress included

* experiments with animated visuals and electric improvisations (the ‘yang’ flipside of the deliberately toned down ‘yin’ Live 2019)

* a duo with Emit Snake-Beings, for an as-yet-untitled sequel to Ngumbang, coming in 2020 (we had a recording session in Suva, Fiji, of all places);

* a couple of informal jam sessions with the Electricka Zoo (which has otherwise been on hold since last year); ( http://www.soundcloud.com/darrel-hannon/jamming-with-dave)

* and I continued to adapt the 19th century book ‘Poems & Lyrics by John Collie’, which I’d learned was written by my Scottish great-great-grandfather in 1856 before he came to NZ. Three of his poems featured on Live 2019, with more in the pipeline.

Continue reading “2019 roundup” →