Note: the fixed electronics feature audio contributions from Ariana Tikao and Jerome Kavanagh (taonga puoro), as well as Mana Waiariki (violin)
The indigenous name for the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand is Te Waipounamu, meaning ‘greenstone waters’. This evocative, poetic appellation resonates with the importance of pounamu (greenstone) to the main iwi (tribal group) Ngāi Tahu, who settled here over 800 years ago. The deep, almost preternaturally green colour of pounamu is reflected in the colour of the clear waters that flow from the Southern Alps, in rivers such as the stunningly beautiful Dart River (Te Awa Whakatipu), a short drive west of Queenstown.
The electronic backing track, which I refer to as a ‘sonic tapestry’, takes these concepts as starting points, both literal and figural. I restricted the source sounds to those coming from a single recording session I made with violinist Mana Waiariki of the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī, and players of taonga puoro (indigenous instruments of Aotearoa), Ariana Tikao (of Ngāi Tahu descent) and Jerome Kavanagh. These recordings were then manipulated by bespoke computer software called Spindrift to create the tapestry of sound that sits behind the soloist.
The opening sound is of a pahū pounamu (jade gong) being struck, created by mixing two different instruments: Ariana Tikao’s stunning jade gong and Jerome Kavanagh’s mere pounamu pahū (a short club-like weapon, which can be played as a gong). After these resonances are electronically stretched out in time, we hear short phrases by Tikao playing on a kōauau pounamu (greenstone flute), which enters into a responsorial duet with the violin. After reaching a highpoint of intensity, the soundscape broadens to evoke the tumbling of alpine waters over rocks, through recordings of tumutumu (river stones) and quiet strikes on the pahū pounamu.
These fluid textures gradually subside, giving way to a series of deep, reverberant phrases from the pūtōrino, an unusual double-cavity wooden flute only found in Aotearoa, performed here by Jerome Kavanagh. Its low register and shadowy tone suggest the subterranean depths from which pounamu originates. A final climax brings the sounds of violin and pounamu together, before subsiding again to soft river-like layers of tumutumu and pounamu.