Mahurangi – Riki Pirihi – Alistair Fraser
4 Stars – Songlines Magazine UK
Mahurangi is the second album from Riki Gooch Pirihi and Alistair Fraser. This album broadens the sound palette of the duo’s original stylings to now include Riki on modular synths as well as drums and percussion. Alistair and Riki have used these new sounds to enable them to converse in music both with each other, and with the lands that inspired the album.
This album is inspired by Mahurangi, the ancestral lands of Riki. Having this whenua as a touchstone and in many ways a living score, has allowed the pair to move towards a post-genre musical form where percussion, modular synths and ngā taonga pūoro are able to communicate their rangi, in a musical space that pushes experimentation, and expression of belonging to a part of something deeper and wider than ourselves. With the weaving together of Alistair’s ngā taonga pūoro to provide sonic ties to the sound world of te ao tawhito, this album of music combines percussion with the ancestral in a way that allows the music to reveal what has been hidden for so long.
Bird Like Men – Tararua
5 Stars – Songlines Magazine UK
Tararua were nominated in the Best Group category for their 2021 release ‘Bird Like Men’. Tararua is an art music quartet based in Wellington, Aotearoa, with members, Al Fraser (taonga puoro), Ariana Tikao (taonga puoro & vocals), Ruby Solly (taonga puoro, vocals & cello), and Phil Boniface (double bass & taonga puoro).
‘Tararua’ (meaning ‘two peaks’), connects whakapapa, from mountains in both North and South Islands, this contemporary New Zealand art music weaves the voices of Aoraki, the tūrakawaewae of Ruby Solly and Ariana Tikao, winding through Te Waipounamu-raised, Wellington based artist Al Fraser, and merging into Phil Boniface’s birthplace and connection with the Tararua ranges.
Their evocative music combines taonga pūoro, waiata, karakia and pūrākau (story) with a strong southern Māori influence, with the western instrumental elements of the cello and doublebass.
5 Stars – Songlines Magazine UK
Tararua were nominated in the Best Group category for their 2021 release ‘Bird Like Men’. Tararua is an art music quartet based in Wellington, Aotearoa, with members, Al Fraser (taonga puoro), Ariana Tikao (taonga puoro & vocals), Ruby Solly (taonga puoro, vocals & cello), and Phil Boniface (double bass & taonga puoro).
‘Tararua’ (meaning ‘two peaks’), connects whakapapa, from mountains in both North and South Islands, this contemporary New Zealand art music weaves the voices of Aoraki, the tūrakawaewae of Ruby Solly and Ariana Tikao, winding through Te Waipounamu-raised, Wellington based artist Al Fraser, and merging into Phil Boniface’s birthplace and connection with the Tararua ranges.
Their evocative music combines taonga pūoro, waiata, karakia and pūrākau (story) with a strong southern Māori influence, with the western instrumental elements of the cello and doublebass.
Rangatira – Riki Gooch and Alistair Fraser
“Here on this album with percussion player Gooch , Fraser creates quietly evocative soundscapes which allude to the journey from dawn to dusk, bird sounds in the forest and an atmospheric sense of timelessness and landscape.
With Gooch’s equally fascinating but discreet effects (scratches, angular beats, the lightest tickle of percussion) these pieces are a tribute to a rangatira/mentor/musician, the late Eddie Tutaki, who introduced them to each other.” Elsewhere
‘Playing Them Into The Room’ – Ruby Solly’s words on Rangatira
Silver Stone Wood Bone – Bridget Douglas and Al Fraser.
New works for flute and taonga pūoro by New Zealand composers, Dame Gillian Whitehead, Rosie Langabeer, Briar Prastiti, John Psathas, Josiah Carr, and Gareth Farr.
Mixed Messages David Harrow and Al Fraser.
The ancient sororities of taonga puoro combine with the contemporary textures and timbres of electronic technology and sequencing techniques to produce an evocative soundscape that is as compelling as it is mysterious.
Nau Mai e Kā Hua is the first duo album by Ariana Tikao and Al Fraser, two leading players of ngā taonga puoro. The album is described as ‘a sonic journey through the pristine waters of Te Wai Pounamu’ (the South Island of New Zealand), where Ariana and Alistair both grew up.
It features improvisations and spoken word, woven through with waiata and the expressive voices of ngā taonga puoro.
Ariana Tikao and Al Fraser were nominated for Best Group 2022 by Songlines Magazine UK
4 Stars Songlines UK
Panthalassa is an abstract and impressionist work in which conceptual ideas are explored through the luminous ngā taonga pūoro playing of Al Fraser, the evocative atmospheric soundscapes of Neil Johnstone, and the virtuosic drones and textures created by guitar player Sam Leamy.
“This is another ambitious but quite exceptional album from Fraser and his fellow travellers here who create pictures in sound…” Elsewhere
Toitū Te Pūoro is Al’s solo album of ngā taonga pūoro music with vocals. Toitū Te Pūoro begins as a meditation on Te Korekore. The music then moves into Te Pō and through Te Ao Mārama. Toitū Te Pūoro was selected by mic.gr (Greece) as one of the best albums of 2018 a 5 star review from muzic.net.nz and this work has been compared to the works of NZ composer greats Lilburn and Rimmer.
“This is a poetic, mysterious, deep immersion album which could take the listener back in, and beyond, time and space.” Graham Reid – Elsewhere
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
“And this shining example of “art” music won’t always be a comfortable listen, but it’s forever destined to be a worthwhile one.” Simon Sweetman.
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.
“it is a journey for those who choose a different path, perhaps one that quieter and more intellectual. This is definitely a headphone album. One to meditate or contemplate with. This is music for taking time out of the craziness of the modern world.” Radio 13
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.
A group of traditional Māori and contemporary musicians, who embarked on a recording project on the Whanganui River released this album of music composed and recorded on the River, for the River. A collaborative music project featuring environmental improvisations and compositions.
Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Taonga Pūoro
This album was recorded during Alistair’s 2015 research trip. This album features interplay between ngā taonga.
Okain’s Bay Māori and Colonial Museum Taonga Pūoro
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.
The album skillfully layers the haunting and almost melancholic tones of taonga pūoro with the light and joyful notes of the classical guitar – taking the listener on a journey through the ancient aural landscape of Aotearoa.
The group’s unique blend of improvisation and composition also features contemporary and traditional Maori pātere (chants), waiata (songs), and karakia (prayers), which flow seamlessly over the music.
The Wellington-based trio consist of taonga pūoro practitioners Henare Walmsley and Alistair Fraser, and classical guitarist and composer Michael Hogan.
Al Fraser 