Listen To Phil Dadson & Rob Thorne's 'Aurongo​~​Inner Listening'

Multiple generations of Aotearoa innovators cross paths on Aurongo​~​Inner Listening, an expansive 29 track work from immensely influential sound / intermedia artist Phil Dadson (From Scratch) and taonga pūoro practitioner Rob Thorne. Out today via Steve Garden's Rattle imprint, the double album was recorded with crystalline clarity by Darryn Harkness, inviting listeners to consider the artists' masterfully precise, often delicate moment-to-moment interactions across two compact discs. Aurongo​ presents improvised recordings of Dadson "playing a multi-voiced bespoke instrument called the 'gloop'" (string / spring / drum, plus gliss’flutes, songstones and ostifan) and Thorne, mixed by Colleen Brennan, while Garden reshaped "the material into three suites that traverse very different aural environments" on Inner Listening.

Dadson and Thorne are launching Aurongo​~​Inner Listening with performances at Tāmaki Makaurau's Audio Foundation and Te Whanganui-a-Tara's Pyramid Club this weekend and next. The super city event will include a "quadraphonic remix of the album performed by John Kim and Steve Garden", while the capital show also features a "deep listening session to the second of Aurongo/Inner Listening's two albums", and a live Q&A session.

A groundbreaking figure in Aotearoa art, Dadson will follow his Pyramid Club event with a solo concert the next day, paying tribute to his his former teacher Jim Allen (who passed away at age 100 in June of this year) — who has himself been praised as the “father of experimental art” in New Zealand. Accompanied by a panel discussion titled Jim Allen, Futuna and the Reverberating Present, including Dadson, Elizabeth Thomson, Tim Barlow, Christina Barton and Greg O'Brien, this performance is happening on 11th November at Fortuna Chapel, "the site of some of Jim Allen’s most important and enduring artworks".

"Currently, I favour improvising over composing as a way of being and responding in the moment, unfettered by the conscious mind. When performers are on a similar wavelength, as in this recording with Rob, the clarity of transmission and communication gives rise to unexpected magic." — Phil Dadson

Phil Dadson & Rob Thorne
Saturday 4th November - Audio Foundation, Auckland
Friday 10th November - Pyramid Club, Wellington

Offsite: Phil Dadson - A Tribute To Jim Allen
Saturday 11th November - Futuna Chapel, Wellington (performance 2pm / panel discussion 4pm)

Tickets available HERE via UTR

'Aurongo​~​Inner Listening' is out today on major streaming platforms via Rattle — order the double CD edition HERE.