The Marion Flow was originally a longer album which spanned recordings from New Plymouth in 1999 and Wellington in 2001.
“It’s lo-fi, organic and about as eclectic as one could manage. Kind of reminds me of Nick Cave if he had grown up in Timaru. No pretentious American accents or catch phrase choruses, just a bunch of people making music. A little beauty!” – NZ Musician, August/September 2002
By the time the opportunity arose to finish recording the Marion Flow I’d been thoroughly immersed in the Wellington free jazz and avant-garde music scene, and was very fortunate to have help from some of the top players there. I’d never studied music at school or been in a conventional band, and was out of my depth technically… so working around my limitations became a spark to creativity.
In 1999, aged 20, I’d left New Plymouth, a large rural town, where I grew up, and moved to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city, where I’d been born and where my early pakeha settler ancestors had lived in the 19th century. The Marion Flow reflects this journey, geographically, sonically and spiritually.
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I’ve now reissued the two halves of the album separately – to emphasise the sense of time and place, and stylistic evolution, and to re-present them more concisely for the short-attention-span 21st century.
“Edwards’ music is often a sculpture rather than a melodic composition. Within this chosen form, amongst all the writings rantings & poetry there’s much difficult pleasure to be had for the musically adventurous.” – Brent Cardy, Real Groove, July 2002
“It’s lo-fi, organic and about as eclectic as one could manage. Kind of reminds me of Nick Cave if he had grown up in Timaru. No pretentious American accents or catch phrase choruses, just a bunch of people making music. A little beauty!” – NZ Musician, August/September 2002
In 1999, aged 20, I left New Plymouth, a large rural town, where I grew up, and moved to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city, where I was born. The Marion Flow reflects this journey, geographically, sonically and spiritually.
The Marion Flow was originally a longer album spanning recordings from New Plymouth in 1999 and Wellington in 2001. I’ve now reissued the two halves separately – to emphasise the sense of time and place, and stylistic evolution, and to re-present each more concisely for the short-attention-span 21st century.
“So easy to get totally lost in this music, recommend for helping with your inner peace” – Andi Verse
Meditative tropical 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.
This is currently a pre-order work in progress, as some of the mixes will be refined over the next few weeks.
The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade.
An acoustic solo set, live at Wairarapa TV in Masterton, New Zealand
– which took place live on the internet. This was simulcast on Freeview CH41, ArrowFM 89.7FM and YouTube.
The set was part of the Property Law Service May Music Marathon – 12 straight hours of live Music to Television screens during NZ Music Month on May the 4th 2019.
Living in a small town I don’t get to as many gigs as I used to… so here using 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, eschewing dissonant improv, multitracking, live backing musicians or electronic trickery.
I kept my half hour minimal and acoustic (the discord and electric noise I’m saving for another time soon) and updated my past – with
I wrote this in 1999, after moving to Wellington. I was at an open mic night, at an upstairs bar in Cuba Mall that no longer exists, waiting for my turn to play. I had to wait a while – hence a lot of lyrics.
by Dave Edwards – electric and acoustic guitars, harmonica, vocal
Live at Bar Bodega, Wellington, New Zealand, June 1999.

I was the opening act for Chris Knox – so this is (obviously) dedicated to him.

Chris influenced generations of artists in NZ and abroad; (go check him out if you haven’t already). His place in the pantheon is secure.
Chris Knox
I’d recently turned 20 and moved back to Wellington (my birthplace). I had with me a cheap imitation Stratocaster, some notebook scribblings, a harmonica in my pocket, and an album and a half recorded.
I’d never studied music at school or played in a band. I was socially awkward, had only basic conventional musical ability, and had zero interest in playing cover songs; I’d internalised the DIY punk ethos (which Chris Knox had helped pioneer in NZ – number 8 fencing wire applied to rock music). I was amazed at how Chris could do so much with a just a few E-shape barre chords.
Over the next few years, and in large part as a result of living in Wellington where an active free improv & avant-garde music scene was coalescing, I moved further away from pop song structures. But at this point my repertoire consisted of songs from Scratched Surface and The Marion Flow, which I’d written and recorded in New Plymouth.
On the Live 1999 cassette recordings they’re even more lo-fi, a ’90s aesthetic.
Releasing these recordings 20 years later comes as we reach the end of another decade. The zeitgeist is different now – faster paced, more diverse and interconnected, different political context, more urgent ecological crisis. Maybe this music is no longer relevant? Or, youthful and free of 21st century baggage, is it still fresh?
Live 1999 is literally half my lifetime ago at this point… where to from here? I’m 40 years old, never did ‘make it’ in the arts and am further out of touch from the music scene than ever, but have developed in some ways… so far in 2019 I‘ve come back full circle to where I was at the beginning, playing solo:
Chris Knox, meanwhile – impaired by a stroke in 2009 and unable to play guitar or communicate easily any more – is a prolific painter. Thank you Chris! And to Fraser McInnes, Darrel Hannon, Brian Wafer, Steve Dean, Rob Thorne, Peter Jefferies, Alec Bathgate, and everyone who came along.
Meditative tropical 
fiffdimension 