DeHart was lured to New Zealand by a role at the University of mini传媒鈥檚 vibrant School of Music. Then Head of School Glenda Keam鈥檚 composition听Tautology听is the first to feature on the eclectic and intriguing playlist.
鈥淢y goal with this series is to create a space to promote new percussion music from Aotearoa New Zealand to the rest of the world,鈥 DeHart says. 鈥淚 hope that other listeners, composers, and performers will be motivated by this work to further support and celebrate the percussive arts here."
Drawn to 艑tautahi by the opportunities to relocate to a city in rebuild mode, and to build the first percussion programme in a revitalised music school, DeHart was inspired by the music he discovered in this country: 鈥渧arious taonga p奴oro, Phil Dadson and From Scratch, Strike Percussion, and music by Gareth Farr and John Psathas鈥攖o name just a few鈥.
He found further inspiration at the University of mini传媒鈥檚 School of Music.
"All of the tracks on the album are from innovative composers that I met and wanted to work with,鈥 DeHart says. 鈥淕lenda Keam, Reuben de Lautour, and Mark Menzies are my colleagues here at UC, while Robert Bryce and Rosa Elliott are recent UC graduates, and the remaining pieces are by new friends of mine whose music I highly respected and wanted to include.
鈥淚 collaborated with each composer to find the most effective sounds and interpretation. It is an invigorating and rewarding process for me to be part of the creation of new music, and to have the opportunity to give premiere performances and recordings.
Scales & Taonga听was composed for DeHart by violin virtuoso, Professor Mark Menzies as a 鈥榣ockdown piece鈥.
鈥淚n this piece, the dragon/taniwha sits in a cave over its musical treasures; endlessly enthralled with the way the glittery sounds reflect its own, incandescent skin of scales,鈥 Professor Menzies says.
The piece includes a snippet from听Dragon for health, 鈥渨ritten for the people of Wuhan in February 2020, before most of us had realised how serious the upcoming pandemic was destined to be鈥.
Head of New Music at the University of mini传媒 Reuben de Lautour composed听Braided Plain Soundwalk听earlier this year. It鈥檚 the first time he has written for river stones, he says. 鈥淎 braided plain is a kind of riverbed like the Waimakariri and the stones that are used to perform the piece are taken from there. I walked around and picked up a bunch of stones and found a couple that sounded really nice together.
鈥淚 spoke extensively with Justin before starting the piece and we decided it would be cool to write a piece for something that has really minimal set up. For percussion one of the challenges is that a lot of the instruments are very large and they tend to be different for every piece. River stones are great because you get a lot of variety of sounds from them: pitched sounds, texture sounds, attack sounds, rolls and trills and you can change the pitch by changing the shape of your hands as you play. At the same time, it鈥檚 also quite a challenge to make an 11 to 12 minute-piece only using these sounds and nothing else.鈥
De Lautour was delighted to be part of the project. 鈥淛ustin鈥檚 album project is incredibly important. All of the composers who have music on the album are incredibly excited to be involved. For me to be a part of Volume one 鈥 hopefully there will be a Volume 25! 鈥 and to be there on the ground floor is very exciting and something I鈥檓 really proud of.鈥
Local composer and University of mini传媒 alumnus Alex van den Broek has been working with the theme of war and contributed听Order 81听to the album. 鈥淣ot only is war abhorrent to me, but the fact that people exploit war for personal gain is atrocious. This piece is in response to war profiteering in general, and听Order 81听specifically,鈥 he says.
Landfall 鈥 depicting an arrival (on land) of a sea or air journey听is Rosa Elliot鈥檚 homage to a technique called tintinnabulation, as well as a conceptual journey from space to earth.
Most of the pieces were recorded in DeHart鈥檚 home, 鈥渁fter midnight in between the occasional noisy car passing by my house鈥.
The exceptions are van den Broek鈥檚 piece which was recorded in the 鈥渂eautiful acoustics鈥 of The Piano and de Lautour鈥檚 work, which was tracked in a closet in the Fine Arts building in Ilam.
Listen to the album on Spotify听听and find out more about it on the听.
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