Moana and the Moahunters
RUA reflects the unique sound of Aotearoa— it fuses dance music but it is the Māori elements that make it different from music from the rest of the world — stories from Aotearoa.
Rua :: two
Parihaka – The Art of Passive Resistance
Features, Offering for Parihaka (D. Hamilton), The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Pūoro Māori: Richard Nunns, Conductor: Kenneth Young, Recorded 22 July 2000, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington.
Te Whaiao :: daylight: Te Ku Te Whe remixed, 2006
Hirini Melbourne & Richard Nunns
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.
Te Whaiao earned Richard Nunns and Hirini Melbourne the Tui Award for the best Māori album at the New Zealand Music Awards 2007.
Each artist cunningly comes with a ready-made audience, the perfect springboard to unleash the music of ‘Te Ku Te Whe’ on a bigger, more mainstream audience. [Rattle Records’] Gummer says he chose the artists because he felt downbeat music would work respectfully with the original music … ‘There is a real breadth of sonic textures that aren’t in the original mixes, bringing in everything from full-scale electronica to dub. It really adds another dimension but doesn’t change the value of the original track,’ he says.
A year and a half in the making, the remixes are varied but all retain a deep, sparse and haunting atmosphere. Completely accessible yet interesting ‘Te Whaiao – Te Ku Te Whe Remixed’ is the kind of album which rewards repeated listening.
NZ Musician, 2006
Buy or borrow from SOUNZ
Lord of the Rings
Toru :: three
Moana and the Moahunters
Released as Moana & The Tribe, this was Moana’s European debut album into Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
Hine Te Iwaiwa celebrates the notion of the Goddess inside every woman; Calling You recalls the relationship of our ancestors with the ocean; both songs showcase the talents of Richard Nunns (taonga puoro), Italian musicians Claudio Teobaldelli (piano) and Giovanni Pecchioli (clarinet). Kapa haka group Ihu Waka makes a debut too.
Toru entered the European World Music Charts at 17.
As a singer with a political and cultural consciousness, Moana is one of the most renowned artists to emerge from New Zealand … and she creates a fusion between smooth world music, and the urban sound with earthy, international beats.
Puhake Ki Te Rangi :: spouting to the skies
Gillian Whithead: The New Zealand String Quartet and Richard Nunns
A celebration of whales, for the New Zealand String Quartet and Richard Nunns by Gillian Whithead, premiered in 2007.
The taonga puoro used in this piece include the percussive tumutumu, karanga manu (pounamu bird-caller), two nguru and two albatross putorino (played as both trumpet and flute). This will tour USA in 2008.
The quartet were then joined by Richard Nunns, a dedicated specialist on Māori instruments, in the premiere of Gillian Whitehead’s Puhake Ki Te Rangi. The strings provided quiet patterns and static harmonies over which Nunns’s largely improvised music entered, tapping out rhythms and then playing high-pitched songs that were answered by the first violin. There were playful moments and flowing melodies, but most often the music told of the minor-key loneliness of whales and albatrosses. It is a sad, hauntingly beautiful piece, played with dignity and love by both the quartet and Nunns.
Rod Biss, The New Zealand Listener, 2007
It’s a World’s World
International Compilation World Music
Mauri, 1988
When she made Mauri, Merata Mita became the first Māori woman to direct, write and produce a feature film. Mauri (meaning life force), is loosely set around a love triangle and explores cultural tensions, identity, and a changing way of life in a dwindling East Coast town. As with Barry Barclay’s Ngati, Mauri played a key role in the bourgeoning Māori screen industry; the production team numbered 33 Māori and 20 Pākehā, including interns from Hawkes Bay wānanga. NZ art icon Ralph Hotere helmed the production design; Māori activist Eva Rickard played kuia Kara.
Flight of the Albatross, 1996
Top Shelf/Fritz Wagner co-production
Sarah, a teenage German, travels to New Zealand to visit her ornithologist mother, working on Great Barrier Island. She meets Mako, an angry Māori recently released from prison, and they slowly become friends. Trouble begins when they visit a cursed mountain.
Päkuru
End blown flute
Purerehua — bull roarer
Te huruhuru
Nguru — flute small flute played with mouth or nose
Nga Taonga Pūoro — Traditional Māori musical instruments
“Hirini Melbourne’s interest in traditional instruments had initally been stirred by looking at old isntruments lying silent in their museum cases. He mused sadly on their lonleliness. What were the sounds they created? What stories were told about them? And would their music be heard by the coming generations? He set about finding the answers to those questions…” Brian Flintoff, Taonga Pūoro.
The instruments here are those of Richard Nunns, new instruments, many created by Brian Flintoff.
To find out more or to make instruments yourself, read the book Taonga Pūoro written by master carver and Māori instrument maker Brian Flintoff. More about the book. It can be purchased from Craig Potton Publishing | Amazon.
Composer In Residence, Gillian Whitehead, 2007
He also featured in the recent Gillian Whitehead documentary on TVNZ.
Kete Aronui
Richard has been the subject of a number of documentaries, most recently on Kete Aronui on Māori television.
Porotiti / Körorohü
Kü
Pupurangi — Giant Kauri shell
Te waihïhï o ngä tai parirua (kohatu)
Püpü Harakeke — flax snail shells
Hue Puruhau — large gourds
Hue puruhau are large dried gourds with the seeds removed. No finger holes are drilled, but the top is cut off leaving the neck, which when blown over creates a vibrant bass sound. (Brian Flintoff)
Listen on Te Ara Pūoro, Radio New Zealand
Playing the gourd with Green Fire Island
Nguru, made from stone
Nose flutes.
Taonga Püoro — Singing Treasures; the book
The book Taonga Pūoro is written by master carver and Māori instrument maker Brian Flintoff and includes background to the tunes played on the instruments and their families of natural sound with which they are associated.
There are sections covering the various types of instruments, such as flutes, gourds, wood and shell trumpets and bullroarers; but what breathes life into the book is the way that the technical information about each instrument is interwoven with the mythological and cultural context to which it belongs.
The book comes with a CD sampler of sounds.
It can be purchased from Craig Potton Publishing | Amazon.
The launch of Ngā Taonga Pūoro: singing treasures, 2004
The launch of Brian Flintoff’s book Ngā Taonga Pūoro at Te Papa, 2004. The book is published by Craig Potton Publishing. Purchase
