Some years ago, Carolyn Mills jested on her website that harps weren't just for angels anymore, warning us not to be seduced by the instrument's peaceful, rippling and ethereal waterfall sound.
There are plenty of waterfalls on Mills' new CD, Preludes & Romances, recorded alongside her duties as Principal Harpist
for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, but they're not the only feature of this album's soundscapes.
American-born Mills has always been a fervent supporter of the local, here playing a superb instrument made by Northland harpmaker Kim Webby. She is also a dedicated performer and commissioner of NZ music.
Helen Fisher's Otari, which provides the final quarter-hour of this disc, is a beautifully sustained piece of writing by a composer best known for her choral piece Pounamu and an extraordinary flute solo, Te Tangi A Te Matui.
Sometimes the cascading glissandi in Otari suggest a howling hurricane might be bearing down on the native bush reserve that inspired the piece; yet delicate evocations of birds, insects and breezes, caught in a happy coming together of harp strings and "household items", are spellbinding.
