News

two tuis!

Classical and Maori music – two seemingly disparate genres – had plenty in common at last week’s Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards.

Of course we do make it our business to find a unity in music of distinction. But John Psathas’ View From Olympus, and Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns’ Te Whaiao: Te Ku Te Whe Remixed were both substantial undertakings involving a wide range of musicians, they are both particularly accessible ‘non-pop’ albums, lamentably, it has to be mentioned that both their achievements went un-televised. And of course both are Rattle releases.

John Psathas, whose previous smaller-scaled releases have also been award winners, simply had too many collaborators to thank. His View From Olympus spent five months at number one in the Classical Music charts – an unprecedented achievement for a New Zealand art music album by a living composer.

Richard Nunns’ onstage listing of the range of musical luminaries involved with Te Whaiao : Warren Maxwell, Salmonella Dub, sjd, The Nomad, Epsilon Blue, Victoria Kelly, James Duncan, Sola Rosa, Farmer Pimp, Lee Prebble, Chris Macro, Rhian Sheehan, Unitone HiFi & Pitch Black – drew an audible gasp from the awards audience.

The Maori album award implicitly acknowledged the original Te Ku Te Whe (released by Rattle in 1993) which brought the sounds of taonga puoro  - traditional Maori instruments -  now often taken for granted, to a wide audience. Te Whaiao continues to bring a new context and life to Hirini and Richard’s work. We could only wish that Hirini was still with us to share this recognition.

We are truly grateful to everyone who has helped make these releases possible.

With View From Olympus also a finalist for Best Album Cover (won by the Mint Chicks), we Rattlers are definitely thrilled to see this degree of industry recognition for our artists' work.

the revolution Will not be televised*

Now we don’t want to sound ungrateful here – particularly to the judges, but we couldn’t help feeling that it’s just a bit miserly for the show producers to  televise the entire proceedings except for the Classical and Maori categories (and ‘Gospel’ - whose status as a ‘genre’ is, frankly open to question). Heck - I may be a wee bit biased, but it's arguable that this year's Classical and Maori awards recognised major artistic milestones in New Zealand music; so we think it’s way past time that 'other' music was so invisible – particularly here in a country where we put a lot of store in “celebrating diversity”.

That the show was broadcast on ‘yoof’ channel C4 doesn’t really explain this to me. Are we to assume that an audience savvy enough for The Daily Show, lacks the attention span to cope with a few minutes of music with more than 3 chords?

michael houstoun goes inland

Also featured in View From Olympus, New Zealand’s favourite pianist MICHAEL HOUSTOUN is releasing a new album early December.

Michael Houstoun had so much fun at his recent Waikato sessions, we just couldn’t get him to shut up. Result: His new solo piano album is a DOUBLE DISC affair. Seriously, dear readers, it’s all that good.

Not only will this luxury length album feature some stellar writing by sought-after composers including Ken Young, Mike Nock, Gao Ping, Victoria Kelly, and John Psathas, but it will also expose a little heard side of Michael’s musicality. In the meantime, just for you - an exlusive peek behind the scenes.

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and then there were 3: meet NZTrio

Rattle is pleased to be working with NZTrio (in residence at The University of Auckland) on a new Pacific Rim focussed project.

Violinist Justine Cormack, cellist Ashley Brown, and pianist Sarah Watkins have been ensconced in the Kenneth Myers Studio with Vector Orchestra and View From Olympus conductor Marc Taddei producing and Rattle’s own Steve Garden on the dials. The project is supported by Creative NZ and Auckland University.

watch this space

More than more music, Rattle is also working on new means for listeners to access and engage with the music. In August the entire catalogue came on-stream on Naxos Music Library subscriber streaming music service. We have some other exciting developments underway we’re looking forward to telling you about soon – all the more reason to look out for our next mailing.

Please share a musical moment with someone you love.

Arohanui.

Tim Gummer,
RATTLER