Music News - Toitu Te Puoro Album Release
17 October 2018 - 0 Comments
Toitu (verb)
to be undisturbed, untouched, permanent, entire.
Puoro(noun) song, music,
musical instrument.
Toitu Te Puoro is an original recorded work from Aotearoa/New Zealand conceived, written, composed and performed by Al Fraser using nga taonga puoro (musical instruments of the New Zealand Maori), and voice. This album is a meditation on the creation sequence as presented by Rev. Maori Marsden. With Te Korekore as a point of departure, the music moves through to Te Po and then explores entities within Te Ao Marama, the world of light.
Al Fraser is one of the most critically acclaimed and prolific performers of nga taonga puoro of his generation. He has worked with some of the most rigorously artistic, culturally diverse and significant projects in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Al has worked in collaborations with Dr Richard Nunns, TrinityRoots, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and with projects spanning jazz, experimental, ambient, folk, Maori and classical musics. Al Fraser is fast becoming one of Rattle Records leading artists.
Toitu Te Puoro is Al’s 5th solo album and he has been a member of collaborative music projects including Tahu, The Woolshed Sessions, Oro, Shearwater Drift and Ponguru. Al was a Wild Creations Artist Resident in 2011, a Churchill Fellow 2016 and a researcher with Otago University and Hokotehi Moriori Trust 2017-2019.
Working in collaboration with Steve Garden, this album has been released through Rattle Records. With a history of integrity and excellence with taonga puoro music, as well as releasing the finest albums of contemporary New Zealand music, Rattle has allowed this work to reach its full potential and join the labels discography of award winning and critically acclaimed albums.
Toitu Te Puoro
Toitu Te Puoro takes Te Korekore as inspiration for its starting point, the place between being and non-being, the realm of primal, elemental energy or latent being, where all created things originate. Al was introduced to the concept of Te Korekore at Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal’s Te Whare Tapere.
“Te Korekore serves as a metaphor for both Al’s approach to music making and composition and the whole contemporary revival of taonga pūoro, the creation of a new tradition of which Al Fraser is an exponent. It entails a ‘subtle searching’ for the instruments themselves and their music.”
Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal
“The Toitu Stream in Dunedin flows from Bellknowes, where my Mum and Dad grew up, under MacClaggan Street to where it joins its tributary branch that runs under Rattray Street. It then makes its way under The Exchange and Queens Gardens to the harbour. Although much of the Toitu Stream in the urban area of Dunedin is covered by modern infrastructure, the song of the stream has never gone. It’s music and voice remains intact and complete, covered but not silent. Entire, permanent and still flowing. Perhaps waiting to be uncovered one day. The sustenance that the Toitu Stream provided tangata whenua who camped in the Exchange area is still present.
The voices of nga taonga puoro remained largely silent for many generations. The taonga languished in museums, many abroad, nearly entirely silenced by the heavy blow of colonialism. The sounds of their voices remained in peoples memories and in korero. Some traditions were passed down and the voices were cherished. Over the last few decades the voices and forms of nga taonga puoro have been carefully nurtured and uncovered.The gradual process of reviving the voices is ongoing, but the puoro remains, intact and complete. Entire. Permanent. The puoro has never left us.” Al Fraser
“Interestingly, Al’s music occasionally reminds me of Douglas Lilburn’s ‘electronic’ experiments of the 1970's and the works of John Rimmer - for they too are about space, air, the unique sound world of Aotearoa’s sacred landscape. Al Fraser is a player who has gone from strength to strength in the past ten years or so - as a player and instrument maker. He is reaching deeper into these instruments - making, composing and playing - and also into the knowledge and worldview that originally saw their creation. His interest in the Toitu stream in Dunedin is a typically indigenous way of thinking and being in the world today - honouring the now hidden, the overcome, the unloved, as a way of making our roots reach even deeper into this land.“ Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal
Al Fraser
Al was born and raised in Dunedin where he learnt drums, taught himself guitar and played in bands. He moved to Wellington in 1994 where he studied jazz guitar at Massey University’s Conservatorium of Music and attained a Bachelor of Music in 2000. Since 1999 Al has been a practitioner of nga taonga puoro, researching, making, and performing. He has collaborated with many of Aotearoa's finest artists, across genres of music and alongside many communities and artistic disciplines including film, dance and visual arts and has appeared on numerous recordings.
In 2018 Alistair made guest appearances on recordings with Dudley Benson, NZSO, Israel Starr, and featured on Flo Wilson’s reinterpretation of Michael Norris’ APRA award winning composition Sygyt at the APRA Silver Scrolls.
Al is in constant demand for live performances and has performed live with Dr. Richard Nunns, TrinityRoots and Irish friends Motu:Oilean, Rhian Sheehan, STROMA, Ariana Tikao, New Zealand String Quartet and at all Te Whare Tapere Ki Waimango. Al has worked with dance companies, Atamira and Okareka, and has played at many festivals including WOMAD, and ‘Museums After Dark’ at Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, U.K. He has toured with Chamber Music NZ over four Matariki and his live to air performance on Radio NZ has had over 5000 views in 2 years. Al is performing at the Tilde New Music and Sound Art Festival in Melbourne 2019.
He has contributed pūoro to original film scores by Warren Maxwell (Strength of Water), Rhian Sheehan (Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses) Lauren King (Waru) and Dave Whitehead and Riki Gooch (The Big Picture). His compositions have been exhibited at The Auricle Sound Art Gallery, Waitangi House and major NZ museums.
He is a member of ensemble 'Oro' (Horomona Horo, Ariana Tikao, James Webster, Al Fraser) who performed live at the APRA Silver Scrolls 2017 and Al released two collaborative albums through Rattle Records in 2018, Shearwater Drift and Ponguru.
Video – Chrysalis by Al Fraser from Toitu Te Puoro
Radio New Zealand Live to Air Performance
Most Viewed Artists
Latest Galleries
NZ Top 10 Singles
- APT.
ROSÉ And Bruno Mars - DIE WITH A SMILE
Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars - BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Billie Eilish - TASTE
Sabrina Carpenter - I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY
Gracie Abrams - ESPRESSO
Sabrina Carpenter - SAILOR SONG
Gigi Perez - LOSE CONTROL
Teddy Swims - A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
Shaboozey - GOOD LUCK, BABE!
Chappell Roan
More Content on muzic.net.nz
Google Site Search
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report A Problem
There are currently no comments for this article. Please log in to add new comments.