Big respect to Rattle, a record company which has been releasing New Zealand recordings ...beyond the regimented lines of classical and contemporary boxes for some years now.
There is a warmth and attractiveness about the whole project, and this extends right throughout every detail..
 Te Whaiao finds a dream team of producers remixing the classic Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns album Te Ku Te Whe – their definitive recording of taonga puoro (maori instruments) released by Rattle in 1993. While he was still with us, Hirini Melbourne expressed a hope that the waiata would find new voices, new rhythms, and new listeners. And so Te Ku Te Whe (“the woven mat of sound”) is unrolled again in Te Whaiao. Through its layering of digital textures and live performances, Te Whaiao (“daylight”) opens a new window into a space in our shared musical consciousness. Te Whaiao is created with respect and aroha. |
Ko Te Whaiao he ropu whakaari moemoea e whakahou ana i te hopunga tipua o Te Ku Te Whe a Hirini Melbourne raua ko Richard Nunns, ara, to raua hopu niwhaniwha i nga taonga puoro, i whakaputaina e Rätara i te tau 1993. I te wa e ora tonu ana a Hirini Melbourne, i whakaputaina e ia töna tümanako kia whanau mai i te waiata he reo hou, he ungeri hou, a, he kaiwhakarongo hou. Kati, ko te Ku me Te Whe, te whariki raranga o te oro, e wharikitia ana i roto o Te Whaiao. Ma ana oro whakapaparanga me öna whakaputa ora, e whakatawheratia ake ana e Te Whaiao, he tirohanga hou ki te whatu manawa I titoa Te Whaiao i runga i te mauri o te ngakau mahaki i te mauri hoki o te aroha. |
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This project has been supported by Te Mangi Paho.
In 1994 Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns walked into a recording studio to make an album that marked the culmination of 30 years of travel, research, korero, composing and performing. The studio was booked for two weeks. After just a day and a half, they already had their album. Te Ku Te Whe has since gone on to become the definitive recording of taonga puoro – the treasured musical instruments of Mäori. Richard and Hirini continued to perform together live, but weren’t to record again together until 2002, when, with Aroha Yates-Smith they recorded Te Hekenga-ä-rangi. At the sessions Hirini talked about exploring new approaches and contexts for their music, in particular the introduction of beats and digital manipulation. Shortly before the release of Te Hekenga-a-rangi, Hirini died of cancer. Some years went by and Hirini’s musings stayed with us. It took some time to get our heads around how a remixed Te Ku Te Whe might sound, how to approach such a project, and who to involve. The very thought of ‘messing’ with a recording that in itself was by now a recognized taonga, seemed almost irreverent. |
Yet the idea of the sound being frozen like a museum artefact, would be antithetical to spirit of discovery that drove Hirini and Richard in their commitment to literally unroll their whariki (mat) and bring the taonga to life. Rattle, as a hands on ‘art music’ label with an overtly naturalistic acoustic focus, had never produced anything even remotely downbeat or electronica orientated. Furthermore, we’d determined that the narrative structure of the original Te Ku Te Whewould be vital to the integrity of remixed version. It was only later on that we noticed how rare the replication of an album structure was in any of the remix albums we could think of. In asking a dream team of remixers to reinterpret the music, without reference to the preceding and following tracks we were asking a lot The remixers we approached responded positively and with a generous musicality, and with nothing less than the utmost respect for the wairua of the original music. And so, with the blessing of Richard Nunns and Hirini’s whanau Te Whaiao now opens a new window on taonga puoro, for a new generation.2006 RAT-D014 |
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