Abrams shifts shape of his music

By REBECCA BARRY

When Pacific Heights producer Devin Abrams talks about soundscapes, he's not referring to the music piped into isolation tanks or candle shops.

"It's more intellectual than chill-out," he says. "There are so many different flavours fused into one."

To begin with, there's the juxtaposition - his Pacific Heights album Frozen Fears was inspired by the South Island's rugged coastline and flora, but he wrote it from his slick pad in Fitzroy, Melbourne.

There's also its unlikely combination of drum'n'bass, jazz and "mood music", a mellow deviation from his other musical venture, Shapeshifter. The Christchurch collective have built a reputation for their intense drum'n'bass sets, the kind that set bottles rattling on bar tops and internal organs quivering. Eighteen months ago they headed across the Tasman to further their career. But it was Atmospheres, the lush, synth-based intro Abrams wrote for their 2001 debut Real Time that encouraged him to take on a solo project.

"That's my favourite track on the album, but it wasn't the direction the band was going in," he says. "The band really wants to do the live, funky, dark drum'n'bass stuff. I really like the production I did by myself. It's more electronic than Shapeshifter, which is more band-oriented."

Last year's acclaimed Pacific Heights EP hinted at the spacious compositions to come. With heady chords ebbing and flowing under dribbling piano lines and the odd sneaky sample from Tina Turner, the tracks on Frozen Fears are as all-encompassing as a hot flush.

Live, Abrams plays with a DJ so he can jam over the top with his saxophone, but he left that off the album because "if people want to create their own melodies to it, then I want them to have that freedom". It's something he knows a bit about. He dropped out halfway through a three-year jazz degree because he felt it was stifling his songwriting. Plus, there was Shapeshifter's heavy touring schedule to contend with.

"I really didn't know what the hell I was doing when I went to jazz school," he says. "I just knew I loved music. I soon realised that as a jazz musician you're only going to be a performer. You can write jazz but everything's been done, it's a pure form. And I've always wanted to write music, especially music with a New Zealand flavour."

The album's first single, Soul Voyage, went to number one on the alternative charts in three weeks, but it's not just Kiwi audiences getting enthusiastic. Frozen Fears will be released in Australia, France, Canada and the US over the next year. "Concord Dawn, for example, who are probably New Zealand's most internationally successful drum'n'bass guys - their sound is unique but it's still very UK, it's still very dancefloor," says Abrams. "It could be an arrogant thing to say but I do believe my stuff is inspired by New Zealand. I haven't heard soundscapes like them anywhere else."

Performance

* Who: Pacific Heights

* Where: Fu Bar

* When: Tonight