experimental
The Marion Flow (part 2, Wellington 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
The Marion Flow was originally a longer album which spanned recordings from New Plymouth in 1999 and Wellington in 2001.
This page is for the 2001 Wellington recordings: produced by Paul Winstanley, & featuring Chris O’Connor (drums), Chris Palmer (electric guitars), Simon O’Rorke (percussion), and more. Recorded at Thistle Hall, Wellington, 2001, and mixed by Joe Callwood.
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- Paul Winstanley, recording The Marion Flow (1999)
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- Dave Edwards, 2004
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- Simon O’Rorke
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- Chris O’Connor
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- Chris Palmer, recording The Marion Flow (2001)
For the earlier 1999 New Plymouth sessions see The Marion Flow (part 1, Taranaki);
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.
“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
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.
]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.
Further listening
The Electricka Zoo – new tracks, late 2019
Here’s a pair of new (late 2019) tracks from The Electricka Zoo
Keyboards & electronica by the Digitator
& Dave Black on electric guitar
in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, November 2019
Get our album if you haven’t already!
in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (part 2, 2014)
A few years ago I wrote a chapter of Jazz Aotearoa, a book about New Zealand jazz music history, discussing the free improvisation and avant-garde jazz scene in Wellington at the turn of the millennium.
in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway is a collection of improvised instrumental music with some of the musicians in that scene, from the point of view of my own attempts as an untrained outsider to fit in with these advanced jazz players.
with
Simon O’Rorke – synthesisers
Blair Latham – bass clarinet
Julie Bevan – acoustic guitar
Michael Hall – alto sax
Chris Prosser – violin
Dave Edwards – bass, electronics, tenor sax (8)
These sessions were recorded in 2014. I’d just returned from living overseas, 15 years after my first exposure to Wellington free jazz.
The first volume was recorded in Wellington in 1999
The Marion Flow (part 1, Taranaki 1999)
“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
Produced by Paul Winstanley, & featuring Steve Duffels, the Digitator, the Dadapapa Magickclone Orchestra and more. Recorded at the TFC Lounge, New Plymouth, 1999 – with special thanks to Brian Wafer.
The Marion Flow is a pre-millennial fusion of warm acoustic pop, spoken word and postpunk discord.. An almost-acknowledged New Zealand classic from Taranaki – of its time (the ’90s!) yet timeless.
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.
This page is for the 1999 New Plymouth sessions;
- for the 2001 Wellington followup recordings see The Marion Flow (part 2);
Further listening
- If you enjoy the avant-garde sound of the last track, try the companion album DDPP: Waiting For the Drummer – recorded at the same sessions in New Plymouth in 1999 with the same personnel;
- for my raw live solo punk sound at the time try Live 1999
with Snake Beings in Fiji
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’ve met up in Fiji and recorded a couple of new pieces which you’ll be able to hear soon.
A new sound for 2020 perhaps?
In the meantime have a listen to the ‘Ngumbang‘ album we made together in 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…”
We also made a new Indonesia-inspired electro-acoustic track for Other Islands 2012-2018:
And Other Islands 2012-2018 concluded with a Fijian folk song, inspired by my earlier visits to Fiji in 2016 and 2018
11 through the viewer 7
11th July 2019
Improvised acoustic guitar and video effects by Dave Black,
Featherston, NZ.
Solstice Shards 19
I spent the longest night of the year at home and improvised this:
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As I’d been doing mainly solo acoustic songs recently this was a palette cleansing electric improvisation from the other side of my coin.
I think of acoustic as yin and electric as yang forces.
