Recent Releases

Pluck  CD

Ten NZ composers were commissioned by Helen Webby to write short works for harp, and premiered at the 2012 Otago Festival of the Arts. This CD is the first anthology of NZ harp music, and is a gateway in to the fascinating sound world of New Zealand’s Art composers: Chris Adams, Pepe Becker, Ross Carey, Claire Cowan, Lyell Cresswell, Graeme Downes, Gareth Farr, Anthony Ritchie, Mark Smythe & Gillian Whitehead.

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The Harvest  CD

The Harvest is comprised of two suites, two continuous 30-minute compositions broken into 8 and 9 parts respectively. The Harvest Suite (composed by Adam Page and John Psathas) features Adam on solo tenor saxophone played through various looping pedals and effects, while Like Picking Fruit is a duet with James Brown on guitar. Both suites are a deft, and at times near-invisible blending of composition and improvisation, and together they produce an album of rare honesty.

Hear and Know  CD

Released in January 2012, Hear and Know is the latest recording from Mike Nock’s Trio Plus. The CD recently won Best Jazz Album at the 2012 Australian Independent Recording awards.

Asian Music for String Quartet  CD

The most recent New Zealand String Quartet CD, Asian Music for String Quartet, brings together aesthetic and musical elements of East and West. Zhou Long captures the essence of the Chinese plucked ch’in, and Cambodian aesthetics are preserved in Chinary Ung’s expressive Spiral III. Tan Dun’s Eight Colors combines the exotic timbres of Peking Opera with Second Viennese School tonalities. Gao Ping’s Bright Light and Cloud Shadows has been admired for its ‘long-breathed brush strokes’ (Washington Post). Taking its inspiration from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, Toru Takemitsu’s beautifully crafted A Way a Lone evokes a shimmering sound world.

These Rough Notes  Book & CD

Drawing its title from one of the last pages of Scott’s journal, THESE ROUGH NOTES is a collaboration between writer Bill Manhire, photographer Anne Noble, composer Norman Meehan and singer Hannah Griffin. ‘Beneath the Ice’ remembers the tragedies of Scott’s polar expedition of 1912 and the crash of NZ901 into Mt Erebus in 1979. The ‘Notebook Songs’ capture the experiences of scientists and other contemporary visitors to the ice.

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