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The Listener, 18 - 24 November 2006: TOWER Voices New Zealand Spirit of the Land

Spirit of the Land. Tower Voices New Zealand.

This collection claims to reveal the “diversity of styles” in “over three decades of New Zealand composition”. I find most of it conservative, tonal and chordal, shown at its best in David Hamilton’s masterly Veni, Sancte Spiritus. The best three of the 13 tracks are those that break free of the above mould. Eve de Castro Robinson’s quasi-birdsong and insect life evoked by wordless cooing, trills, clicks and warbles in Chaos of Delight 111 is a simple but coherent listen. Gillian Whitehead’s expansive Taiohi Taiao towers above all else. Its spirituality captures the depths of Aroha Yates-Smith’s Maori text, where the life-giving force of water transfers in the second part to the life-giving force of the womb as the fountain of humankind, echoed by Whitehead’s surging cascades of florid choral writing. Music and text become one in this very moving work. The slow static chant in Helen Fisher’s Pounamu is in perfect symbiosis with Richard Nunns’s koauau flute playing. Karen Grylls’s choral direction produces immaculate blend, balance and fine detail in all works