With Ponguru, Phil and Al bring together the low voice of the double bass and the many voices of taonga pūoro in an exploration of timbre, space, melody, and our shared musical language.
“The soundtrack to dreams, myths and the dark landscapes of Aotearoa.” Graham Reid – Elsewhere
Shearwater Drift is a vast sonic collage that explores real and imagined landscapes. The compositions are created from pieces of sonic architecture utilising elements from the man made environment, the land, ocean, and sky, and those strange places in between where sound is a hybrid. Many of the sounds are unique to New Zealand, in fact some are unique to Wellington, while others are from Scotland.
U.K Taonga Pūoro was released in May 2017 as chronicles the taonga pūoro held in museum collections at Cuming Museum London, Edinburgh University, SCVA Norwich and Aberdeen University.
Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Taonga Pūoro was recorded during Alistair’s 2015 research trip. This album features interplay between ngā taonga.
The voices of the taoka tāwhito (ancient treasures) in theses compositions are from taoka pūoro that reside in the collection of Okain’s Bay Māori and Colonial Museum, Banks Peninsula. Thanks to Murray Thacker for his support with this project. CD’s can be bought from Okains Bay Māori and Colonial Museum.
In 2011 Alistair held a Wild Creations Artist Residency (CNZ DoC) at Masons Bay, Rakiura/Stewart Island where he researched and created taoka pūoro from the environment based on research of taoka from Murihiku and surrounds. He produced an album of music and touring exhibition.
In late 2007 a bunch of Wellington musicians got together in an old woolshed in Takaka Valley, New Zealand, to record some songs. From this summertime gathering at the top of the South Island, The Woolshed Sessions project was born: a critically acclaimed limited edition album and a live show that sold out by word of mouth alone.
The Woolshed Sessions is a fresh approach for New Zealand songwriting and performance, reflective of the woolshed’s idyllic Golden Bay surroundings, and distinguished by lashings of lap-steel guitar, lush vocal harmony sing-a-longs, taonga puoro – traditional Maori instruments – and banjo punctuations.
