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This suite of short pieces aims to juxtapose several different compositional styles relevant to the medium of electroacoustic music. Most of the source material is drawn from Allan Thomas’ Karanga Voices audio library, MTM’s open source samples, recordings of Kylie Nesbit’s bassoon and viola sounds, and recordings of local Wellington rock band Keller Kinder of which I am a member.

‘Another Day’ Miniatures was premiered at the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington at ‘Karanga Voices’ – a concert celebrating both the Karanga Voices audio library project of Allan Thomas (which documents New Zealand heritage in sound, after which the concert is named) and five generations of electroacoustic composers in Wellington.

• Killin: 'Another Day' Miniature; DATA files 

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• Anton Killin: 'Another Day' Miniatures 

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• Killin: A Priori; DATA files 

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The term “a priori” in philosophy refers to that which is already known or presupposed before any kind of inquiry has taken place.

This piece organises vocal sounds into a specific trajectory and juxtaposes these sounds with electronically manipulated material and recordings of nature and machinery. I recorded speakers of various languages – Polish (Andrzej Nowicki), Japanese (Andy Tate), Russian (Liz Platova), French (Clare Tattersall), Luo (Beryl Matete), English (myself), Dutch and German (Duncan Nairn). These languages were ‘altered’ during the recording process to accommodate the trajectory (from vowel sounds to whole words to consonant sounds to percussive voice sounds to breath sounds) and thus, while the grammar structures of each language still inform the ‘words’ of its speaker, the original meaning of word-combinations is tainted and often lost.

Much of the electronic sounds were created from these voice recordings. Moreover, a lot of only subtle electronic embellishment was employed at times – an aesthetic decision that ‘holds back’ on many opportunities to modify sounds and thus foregrounds the inverted linguistic function of the spoken languages into a purely aural sensation by presenting the recordings as they are, often without electronic manipulation.

• Anton Killin: A Priori 

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• Killin: A Priori; DATA files 

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Arapatiki was commissioned by Stephen De Pledge as one of a series of Landscape preludes, and received its first performance in the Wigmore Hall, London, in January, 2004. Arapatiki translates (from the Maori language) as ‘the way of the flounder’, and is the ancient name of the sand flats in front of my house at Harwood, near Dunedin. The piece has something to do with the advance and retreat of the tide across the flats, where many species of sea and water birds spend much of the day – an ever-varying water-scape. The opening idea is based on the song of the korimako or bellbird.

• Whitehead: Arapatiki; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Arapatiki; computer-set 

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• Landscape Preludes  Year: 2011 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Arapatiki; video 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Various Works 

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• Stephen de Pledge - Landscape Preludes  

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• Stephen de Pledge plays Arapatiki by Gillian Whitehead 

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• Tuhonohono: Music by Gillian Whitehead 

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• An Interview with Gillian Whitehead 

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• Stephen de Pledge: Three Landscape Preludes  Year: 2004 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Arapātiki CD  Year: 2012 

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Chiaroscuro is a method used in the visual arts applying light and shadow to create the illusion of three-dimensional objects. If light comes from only one source, and therefore from one direction, then all light and shadow will be determined by the rules that this implies. ‘Chiaroscuro’ was commissioned by Stephen De Pledge in 2005.

• Cresswell, Lyell: Chiaroscuro; computer-set 

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• Cresswell: Chiaroscuro; computer-set 

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• Landscape Preludes  Year: 2011 

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• Lyell Cresswell: Chiaroscuro; audio 

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• Lyell Cresswell: Chiaroscuro; video 

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• Stephen de Pledge - Landscape Preludes  

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• Stephen de Pledge plays Chiaroscuro by Lyell Cresswell 

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An improvisatory impulse is at the root of this work which involves the performers embracing and engaging with a process, a language, a degree of risk and the ability to fly. The success of Firestarters hinges precariously on just this, and for me that is an essential and exciting element. Within the parameters of each Firestarter, is a provision for improvisation and interpretation. Detailed instructions, including a somewhat prescriptive methodology and a set of invocations, chart the territory for a series of dialogues, much like a set of rites might pave the way for unpredictable arisings. There is an obvious analogy here with mapping uncharted terrain. Equipment, maps and road code are provided. The performers embark, interpreting directions according to their lights and taking the audience with them. Firestarters might also be understood as channels or invocations towards dialogues with another dimension – with those guiding lights who have kindled fires in zones of darkness and human ignorance.

• Dadson: Firestarters - zones of darkness and unexpected light; facsimile 

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• Phil Dadson: Firestarters - zones of darkness and unexpected light 

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• Phil Dadson: Firestarters - zones of darkness and unexpected light 

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‘Generation’ is computer-generated ‘visual music’. It won the Best Original Soundtrack award at Cinanima 2004 (Animated Film Festival in Portugal) amongst other awards and has performances around the world to high acclaim.

• Downes: Generation  Year: 2004 

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This is the “permanent exhibit” from the work in progress called ‘given what we gather takes place’. The model for the whole work is that of a museum in which some exhibits are on permanent display, and others are brought up from the storeroom. In other words, some sections of music are always to be played, while others are chosen by the performers from a pool of material to present a unique exhibition for each performance. The percussionist’s instrumental collection is similarly assembled; some categories of instruments are specified while others are chosen by the percussionist with the added stipulation that some aspect of the instruments chosen must be unique to the location of the performance. The music of this particular “exhibit” alludes to, but does not use, folk-like material and is conceived as a playful sparring match between two friendly opponents. ‘given what we gather takes place’ was commissioned by Resonate Duo, to whom it is dedicated, with funding from Creative New Zealand.

• Gardner: Given what we gather takes place; computer set 

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• Gardner: Given what we gather takes place; computer-set 

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• Given What We Gather Takes Place 

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Everyone of my generation remembers the ‘Goodnight Kiwi’ – the animation that used to signal the end of television for the night in the days when we only had two channels to choose from.

I remember the rare occasions I was allowed to stay up late enough to see the Goodnight Kiwi carry out his nightly duties. It was always way past my bedtime and therefore overwhelmingly exciting. But I always felt very melancholy afterwards. I would lie awake for hours thinking about the kiwi shutting down the power and climbing up to sleep in the sky. It seemed so final.

As I was composing this piece in 2004, my mother was approaching the end of a long illness and she and I were going through a process of looking through photographs, telling the stories that accompanied them and wondering what
lay ahead. It made me remember long summers, lawn-mowers, barbeques, pohutukawa trees at the beach and a time in life that wasn’t weighed down with responsibilities or fears for the future. This piece is an emotional landscape that tries to evoke that feeling of nostalgia, presenting childhood memories into which the future begins to creep.

I imagined my mother was setting off on the same journey as the kiwi… wandering through the building, shutting down the power and then climbing up to sleep in the sky. I wrote this piece for her.

• Kelly: Goodnight Kiwi; facsimile 

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• Landscape Preludes  Year: 2011 

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• Victoria Kelly: Goodnight Kiwi; video 

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• Stephen de Pledge - Landscape Preludes  

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• Stephen de Pledge plays Goodnight Kiwi by Victoria Kelly 

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• Stephen de Pledge: Three Landscape Preludes  Year: 2004 

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• Michael Houstoun: Inland (CD & DVD set)  Year: 2007 

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Hinetekakara is the ancestress of Aroha Yates-Smith, the kaikaranga (singer) who provided the idea and the text of this piece. Hinetekakara lived on the shores of Lake Rotorua with Ihenga, her husband or father, an eponymous ancestor of the Te Arawa people, when the land was still being settled after the arrival of the Te Arawa canoe from central Polynesia. The four cadenzas, for bassoon, alto flute, flute, cello and bassoon, and bassoon link improvised sections, in which all the instruments participate. The singer initially invokes, accompanied by putatara (conch shell trumpet), the spirit of Hinetekakara, then addresses rituals following the death of her future father-in-law (with putorino), and then the birth of her son (with pumotomoto, an instrument used to assist at child-birth). A voiceless improvisation on pupu harakeke (flax snail), an instrument presaging danger, is followed by Ihenga’s anguished lament as he finds the murdered body of Hinetekakara by the lake, by the place named for her, Ohinemutu, meaning the end of the woman. Finally, she is farewelled as her spirit returns to the afterworld.

• Whitehead: Hinetekakara; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Hinetekakara; computer set 

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• Tuhonohono: Music by Gillian Whitehead 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Puhake ki te rangi  Year: 2007 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Arapātiki CD  Year: 2012 

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In the book Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett convincingly argues that there is nothing about human consciousness, emotion or experience that cannot be encompassed by a purely physical, biological and mechanical explanation. We do not need to refer to some ‘soul’ or ’mind’s eye’ to describe our experiences. We are, in short, machines – just very clever machines.

These three short miniatures push the performer to the limits, yet, paradoxically, a ‘human’ reading of the score still brings to the surface a more energetic, compelling and arguably musical performance than a merely mechanical rendition.

• Norris: Machine Noise; computer set 

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• Norris: Machine Noise; computer set 

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• Landscape Preludes  Year: 2011 

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• Michael Norris: Machine Noise; video 

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• Stephen de Pledge - Landscape Preludes  

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• Stephen de Pledge plays Machine Noise by Michael Norris 

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