KEY POINTS:
We have waited too long for such a substantial CD of Gillian Whitehead's music as Puhake ki te rangi.
Whitehead's scores evoke times when our bush and forest must have seemed like the Garden of Eden, while Richard Nunn's taonga puoro set them in a mysterious landscape, with lilting birdcalls to something altogether wilder.
The blend of Maori and Pakeha, particularly in the title piece is perfection. This is an elegy for the persecuted whales, caught in a plethora of water imagery. Underneath lies the grim irony that much of the mammals' song rises from their very bones, which have been used in making the taonga puoro.
Ligeti-like textures and gestures pose no problem for the New Zealand String Quartet, who dovetail seamlessly with Nunns. The resulting sonic tapestry is expertly woven by producer Wayne Laird.
Hineraukatauri is a shorter piece, complementing Alexa Still's virtuoso flute with the sounds of wood. It is extraordinarily moving when Nunns, speaking through his putorino, gives us the words of the late Hirini Melbourne: "Listen to the weeping and crying of the children of Hineraukatauri."
Aroha Yates-Smith was an eloquent colleague of Nunns and Melbourne in their 2003 Rattle release Te Hekenga-a-Rangi; in Whitehead's new disc, she sings with soulful simplicity of the hopes, fears and violent fate of an ancestress, Hinetekakara. The raw, thrilling calls of putatara and pukaea punctuate the players of Tuhonohono, with some particularly fiery playing from bassoonist Ben Hoadley.
The strings return for Hineputehue, ushered in by the chime of greenstone. The NZSQ gives us hints of Bach and a vague Middle Eastern dance in this furtive soundscape, a piece with programme and politics, inspired by the American invasion of Afghanistan.
This remarkable CD comes with a companion DVD filmed by Prue Donald, the director of last year's Artsville documentary on the composer. Donald has the string players gently assist Nunns in demonstrating his instruments and making bold use of darkness during the performance. In a word, indispensable.
* Gillian Whitehead, Puhake ki te rangi (Atoll ACD 107)
