Te Whaiao – Te Ku Te Whe Remixed by Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns – Remixed by Various New Zealand Artists – free online New Zealand music

The winner of Best Māori Album, NZ Music Awards in 2007, Te Whaiao – Te Ku Te Whe Remixed by Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns – Remixed by Various New Zealand Artists features artists Epsilon Blue, Victoria Kelly, Warren Maxwell, Lee Prebble, Farmer Pimp, The Nomad, Unitone Hi Fi, Pitch Black, Sola Rosa, Rhian Sheehan, Salmonella Dub, SJD and Chris Macro taking the original recordings of Te Ku Te Whe (the woven mat of sound) and producing an unique New Zealand recording.

The original Te Ku Te Whe was released in 1993, and was instantly recognised as a landmark in the history of Māori music – bringing the sounds of Nga Taonga (traditional Māori instruments) to the ears of a mainstream audience for the first time. Te Whaiao opens a new window on taonga puoro for a new generation with new voices, new rhythms, created with respect and aroha.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

• More free online New Zealand music
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• NZ Music Month 2011 — official site

 

Tuhonohono by Judy Bailey – free online New Zealand music

Tūhonohono sounds like a New Zealand landscape – in the best sense of what that might mean. It is an unashamedly lush, ambient, spacious album, evoking a sense of mystery as it weaves together the strands of two apparently distant musical tonalities.

The artists Richard Nunns and Judy Bailey became enthusiastic about the prospect of a musical dialogue between piano and taonga pūoro (traditional Māori instruments), after meeting on a previous project. Tūhonohono was a completely improvised recording. The open sessions allowed Richard and Judy to develop and explore a common music language. Steve Garden was then to take a crucial role, not just capturing the sound of the instruments, but shaping the form of the music in an extended editing process.

This is neither traditional Māori music nor is it jazz as some might understand it. But the appropriately titled Tūhonohono is an extraordinary and utterly compelling album.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

• More free online New Zealand music
• Posts about New Zealand Music Month 2011
• New Zealand Music Month events
• NZ Music Month 2011 — official site

 

Te Hekenga-ā-rangi by Hirini Melbourne & Richard Nunns – free online New Zealand music

A celebration of  the life and work of Hirini Melbourne, who with long-time musical partner Richard Nunns recorded Te Hekenga-ā-rangi just before Hirini’s death. Featuring new instruments, new techniques, and the crucial additional element of the female voice (sensitively provided by Aroha Yates-Smith).

Te Hekengaā-rangi were an ancient people, said to have originated in the heavens and then to have occupied Aotearoa. The name encapsulates the sense of voices or sounds being relayed from the spiritual realm, from the very gods themselves. Embodied in stones, shells and nature itself are female deities whose stories are woven into this journey of song. Strands of this recital encompass Tāne’s ascent to the heavens and his eventual return to Papatuānuku.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

• More free online New Zealand music
• Posts about New Zealand Music Month 2011
• New Zealand Music Month events
• NZ Music Month 2011 — official site

 

Ipu by Gillian Whitehead – free online New Zealand music

Ipu by Gillian Whitehead brings together a unique ensemble of piano, cello, and pre-European Māori instruments and voice.

Ipu is a poetic tale of love based on a story by Tungia Baker (translated into Māori by Wena Tait). An ipu is a gourd used to carry food and goods and ipu korero denotes a story-teller, someone who ‘carries’ stories. The ipu is employed on Gillian’s album as a musical instrument.

Gillian Whitehead one of Aotearoa’s most respected composers reflects:

When I first heard Tungia’s story of Waka and Kowhai, I knew I wanted to tell it with music, weaving the voices of Māori instruments with those of cello and piano to create a soundscape which supported it. The Māori instruments are employed in sympathy with their traditional usage. The pu kaea for instance is heard only during the appearance of the war canoe, and the purerehua, which summons rain, presages the storm ..

Featuring Tungia Baker (voice), Richard Nunns (taonga puoro), Judy Bailey (piano) and Georg Pedersen (cello).

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

• More free online New Zealand music
• Posts about New Zealand Music Month 2011
• New Zealand Music Month events
• NZ Music Month 2011 — official site

 

Te Ku Te Whe – Hirini Melbourne & Richard Nunns – free online New Zealand music

Today’s musical offering for library members is Te Ku Te Whe by Hirini Melbourne & Richard Nunns. An extraordinary recording, it reached gold status in 2002 and is still popular today.

In keeping with Māori spirituality, the music on Te Ku Te Whe takes the listener into an ancient world, structured by mythology, history, and the moods of nature. The sound and images have been chosen to evoke the closeness of Mäori music to the land, the sea and the wind.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

• More free online New Zealand music
• Posts about New Zealand Music Month 2011
• New Zealand Music Month events
• NZ Music Month 2011 — official site