music
Other Islands: 2012-2018
Coming in 2018
The third fiffdimension compilation (see also Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 and Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012) brings us into the current decade – with further wide-ranging experimentation and exploration both sonically and geographically, in New Zealand, Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.
Now available to pre-order (some tracks available immediately and you’ll be automatically sent the rest once everything’s finalised).
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 (2010-2015)
Ngumbang (2014-2015)
The Winter: Exit Points (2010/2015)
The Electricka Zoo (2017)
and previously unheard tracks
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), Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi), Emit Snake-Beings (vocal, percussion, flute, electronics), Blair Latham (bass clarinet), Simon O’Rorke (synthesiser), Chris Prosser (violin), Julie Bevan (acoustic guitar), the Digitator (electric drums, keyboards & loops),
plus Indonesian gamelan ensembles led by Sofari Hidayat, Budi Putra, and Gareth Farr,
and field recordings from Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.
If you enjoy this, try the previous volumes Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 and Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012
the Electricka Zoo on Access Radio this Saturday
Electricka Zoo played live in the studio
on Terry’s Songwriters Show.
It was broadcast on Saturday 15th of April – hear the podcast online.
Terry’s Songwriters Show is a weekly programme hosted by Terry Shore – who is a singer/song-writer himself.
Gamelan Padhang Moncar, 18th June
All-Day Multicultural Event
Saturday 18th June 2016, 10am-5pm
St Patrick’s College Hall, Kilbirnie
A small gadon group from Gamelan Padhang Moncar will perform at this festival, which will feature a wide range of performances from many cultural groups (European and Māori, Pacific and Asian) as well food stalls and face-painting. More information here.
This event is to raise funds for the seismic strengthening of their historic building which is currently a busy building site rather than a place of worship.
Gamelan Padhang Moncar – 11:30am (followed by Indonesian dancers)
Gamelan Padhang Moncar have in the past held some very special music events at the church of St Mary of the Angels, involving their wonderful choir (Vita Brevis and Darkness to Light).
the Ballad of William Knife
Music video from the album ‘South Island Sessions‘, set in 19th century New Zealand with an ecological theme. ‘The Ballad of William Knife’ was the name of the show we took to the Dunedin Fringe Festival in 2006.
See also the videos for ‘Bandit Joe on a Scraded Gat’ and ‘BFD’
1861 revisited – Read the rest of this entry »
Ascension Band 2005
“With elements of punk, post-punk, jazz, classical, straight rock, opera and music hall, the Ascension Band are that rare thing: Something Wholly Other. They retain avant garde cred and still manage to rock harder than AC/DC.” – www.varsity.co.nz
This riff
by organist/conductor/arranger Nigel Patterson (The Black Seeds, The Manta Rays, Fly My Pretties), guitarist & organiser Dave Edwards (fiffdimension, The Winter), and over a dozen musicians on guitars, basses, drums, electronics, keyboards, trumpets and vocals, was the seed that grew into a full scale electric symphony: Evolution.
“The 50-minute piece of music, broken down into six movements, was performed live over a few nights for the Fringe Festival in 2005; the group taking out the Best Music Award.
“It was stunning. Discordant guitars were choked, drums clattered and crashed, voices mingled with percussion and keyboards – but this form of free-improvisation had a structure to it. It had movement, it had a plan. It was a great beast of a song that writhed and wriggled and often managed to run downhill, away from the players – in the best possible way.
“Here, the show has been recorded onto a CD for posterity – and it begs discovery. It’s an intense listen – but that’s to be expected from a group of players who took their name from one of John Coltrane’s toughest listening albums.” – Simon Sweetman
Nigel Patterson – hammond organ & conductor
Will Rattray – electric guitar
Bell Murphy – bass
Warwick Donald – bass
Murray Stewart – keyboards
Damian ‘Frey’ Stewart – laptop
Ryan Prebble – tone generator
Felicity Perry – vocal
Atushi Iseki – vocal
Matt Baxter – drums
Greta Welson – drums
Give credit to the artist
Distribute all derivative works under the same license
Fringe Festival 2016: East to West
Here’s my first major project for 2016, as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival:
The show is a big OE epic of video & music from the Tasman to the Atlantic, a decade in the making.
It takes the audience on a journey half way around the world from New Zealand, across Australia, via a dozen countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Albania, Portugal and more.
l’ll play a live soundtrack myself as a solo performance, to evoke each country… it’ll be a culmination of the travelling and field recording /world music direction I’ve taken over the past decade.
So far it’s screened in New Zealand Fringe Festival and also at the Southland Arts Festival in Invercargill.
Nat da Hatt: Kleptomania
Presenting the new solo album from Nat da Hatt!
Nat da Hatt is a political refugee from New Zealand who has settled in Japan where he spends his days in a cave creating tone paintings on an array of devices and instruments including: guitar, thumb piano and a Korg vocoder.
He’s also collaborated with fiffdimension’s Dave Black on the 2014 explicitly Japanese psychedelic album
ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes
and some 2015 collaborations in progress
as well as with American jaw-harp maestro Richard Morrison as Mezcla de Refresco
and here’s his previous 2012 solo masterpiece, Twango
