25 February 2009 - 0 Comments

People in your Neighbourhood is an exciting new music collaboration which highlights the increasing creative diversity and multi-ethnicity of New Zealand. The album brings together 17 local musicians and the internationally renowned UK based Urban Soul Orchestra in an eclectic mix of soulful beats and rhythms.

Demonstrating the cultural diversity of Auckland City, the album includes performances from New Zealand-born Chinese writer Renee Liang, Korean rapper Joshua Jang, Brother J singing in Maori and English, GuZheng player Xiyao Chen, Spanish Flamenco singer Maite Elguetta Clavelle, and Brazilian singer songwriter Mani Fegundes.

Collaborating with the local crew for both the album and live shows is the UK based Urban Soul Orchestra. Founder and arranger Stephen Hussey, along with members of USO will be in New Zealand for the People In Your Neighbourhood shows at the Transmission Room on Thursday 12th March and WOMAD on Saturday 14th March.

The live shows will be a choreographed multimedia event that will incorporate motifs of movement and ethnicity from traditional Chinese strings, Pacific drumming, Asian street breaking, and African dancing.

People in Your Neighbourhood is a limited edition album available at the live shows, from selected cafes nationwide, and at local festivals Polyfest, Auckland International Cultural Festival and Pasifika.

The music on this PIYN album captures the new face of urban New Zealand, and is meant for all to listen, enjoy and share. As such various elements of the tracks are loaded onto a creative commons site for remixers and collaborators to use under a non-commercial CC license –
http://ccmixter.org/people/BritishCouncilNZ

According to Gareth Farry, business development manager at the British Council who is behind the collaboration, this is the first time something like this has been produced in New Zealand.

“PIYN is a whole mix of cultures collaborating with world class talent from the UK and others here in a modern intercultural urban music project. This is not “World Music”, but global music. This type of music draws on Western Production techniques to ensure quality but still maintains elements of culture,” says Farry.

People in Your Neighbourhood is an ongoing project for the British Council and will act as a catalyst for inter-cultural dialogue and collaboration between artists of different cultural backgrounds, and amongst various art forms.

Thanks to www.beat.net.nz for this story.

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