ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes

Music by Dave Black & Nat da Hatt – two New Zealanders living in Japan. 楽しむことができます!

Like 日本 itself, this music offers a surrealistic fusion of ancient and modern. released 31 January 2014

Click here for Nat da Hatt’s solo albums

Nat da Hatt – electric & acoustic guitars, drum machine, synths, laptop, samples

Dave Black – bass, banjo, acoustic guitar (5), electric guitar (3), loop pedal, electronics, laptop, field recordings

Dave Black & Nat da Hatt climb Mt Yakushidake, Japan, 2012

ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (2014)

Nat da Hatt

Kyoto, Japan, 2012

Nat da Hatt

Dave at the Golden Pagoda, Kyoto, Japan, 2012

Sunrise from the summit of Mt Fuji, Japan, 2012

Nat da Hatt

Welcome to the Year of the Horse!

First Time Around: East Asia

This is an album of sound recordings, made in six different countries, edited into sonic short stories and soundscapes –

East Asia https://maps.app.goo.gl/UZm5kgceqFjuoNf76

following a year and a half living in

China 中国

Mongolia Монгол улс

by
Dave Black – field recordings, laptop, gayageum loops, clarinet, acoustic bass, guay, readings

Cylvi Manthyng – tangso, shakuhachi, golden egg, singing bowl, readings & rubbings

Continue reading “First Time Around: East Asia” →

The Winter: Flying Visit

Acoustic instrumental music by Wellington, New Zealand, improvising trio The Winter.

Mike Kingston: charango, guitar, clarinet

Dave Edwards: ukulele, sanshin, tenor sax, piano

Simon Sweetman: xylophone, percussion

Continue reading “The Winter: Flying Visit” →

South Island Sessions

1861 revisited – my first pakeha (European) Edwards ancestors, Totara Jack and Mary, arrived in the South Island of New Zealand on board the Olympus and settled in Nelson.

When I lived nearby a century and a half later,

I found the address where they’d lived, just below a spot on a hill that marks the geographical centre of NZ. To the north is Tasman Bay, and south are the foothills of the Southern Alps.

I jammed with South Island musicians; studied at the Nelson School of Music; played in Hokitika, Greymouth, Westport, Nelson, Blenheim, Lyttelton and Dunedin (as well as Brisbane, Australia); and recorded the sound of tui and makomako (native birds) in Nelson Lakes National Park.

Music by:

Dave Black – acoustic guitar, banjo, drums, harmonica, laptop, field recordings, tenor sax, and vocals

Cylvi M – vocals & phat beatz

Hayden Gifkins / Matt Thornicroft – electric guitars

Frey – no-input mixing desk

Haz / Cookie – drums

The Ballad of William Knife (2006)

South Island Sessions (2013)

The Ballad of William Knife (2006)

South Island Sessions (2006)

Totara Jack

Dave Black, 2006

Nelson, 1861

Dave Black, 2006

After Maths & Sciences

An Australian novel for the ear, recorded in Melbourne VIC and Gosford NSW in 2005 – by kiwis.

Music by Dave Black – banjo, dictaphone, laptop, acoustic guitar, harmonica, drums / Cylvi M – phat beatz, shaker, shakuhachi / Francesca Mountfort – cello / Mike Kingston – acoustic guitar / various Australians

2006 | Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

“After Maths & Sciences was recorded by Dave Black (some may know him as David A. Edwards, and if you don’t, then check his website, or the compilation of earlier recordings,Gleefully Unknown 1997-2005) in two parts: From May-July of 2005 in Melbourne, during the winter….

Continue reading “After Maths & Sciences” →

The Winter: Swansong (for the Huia)

The Winter‘s 2004 sequel to Parataxes was a tribute to extinct New Zealand bird the Huia.

After this Mike and Dave moved to Australia, and the band next played in 2009.

The Winter: Parataxes

The debut album by The Winter: instrumental improvisations from Wellington, New Zealand, 2003. The band emerged fully formed on winter solstice day in June.

Builds from acoustic intimacy around the winter fireplace to the electric blizzard climax of ‘Parataxes 9‘.

“Derek Bailey on acid!” – Anthony Donaldson, Primitive Art Group

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

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

The Winter: Parataxes (2003)

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

Photos by James Gilberd, from The Winter’s first gig at Photospace Gallery, Wellington NZ, August 2003.

Mike Kingston – cello, electronic composition (1,4,7), electric guitar (2), acoustic guitar and slide whistle (8)

Dave Edwards – acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica

Simon Sweetman – drums and percussion

“The Winter are a Wellington based improvising trio, and Parataxes is their 1st release. It documents both acoustic and electric live sets that drift from eastern sounding cello led pieces to fairly extreme feed-backy noise. Continue reading “The Winter: Parataxes” →

Mantis Shaped and Worrying

The difficult third album – recorded during a time of intense introspection in 2002. I locked myself in my room in Wellington for all of November with an analogue 4-track tape recorder, electric bass, guitars and harmonica and wrestled with the void.The results rapidly put an end to my promising New Zealand music career!

I spent days alone in my room with a borrowed 4-track cassette recorder (thank you Jeff Henderson) and bass guitar (thank you Simon O’Rorke). I’d never had a bass lesson so came up with my own improvised atonal punk/funk style.

The thin walls and neighbours below meant I couldn’t use an amp but could only play in headphones. This added to the sense of implosion. Likewise vocals couldn’t be done in a loud voice. I mostly eschewed effects pedals, and went more for dissonance than distortion. The technology was all analogue.

The result was Mantis Shaped and Worrying. It received mixed reviews, but was unlike anything else (as far as I was aware) at the time. File under: sui generis.

[send us your review]

Track one was a major composition in three movements entitled And in a who gets to who and who does and him:

Continue reading “Mantis Shaped and Worrying” →

Thailand ประเทศไทย

From Bangkok to Chiang Mai, with Thai images and sounds.

South Korea 대한민국

Music and videos by Dave Black & Cylvi Manthyng, two New Zealanders living in 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’.