Enchanting call of fantail

If the sleek, beguiling paintings by John Walsh on Mere Boynton's new album Waikohu are not enough to catch your eye, then sample a few phrases from Richard Nunn's putorino on the opening track - the nearest thing in music to the piwakawaka fluttering around our forests - and you'll want to hear more.

Boynton is a performer who is known on film (she was Mavis in Once Were Warriors) and the opera stage (a few years back she was a feisty Frasquita in Carmen); now we can hear her voice in 15 of her own waiata, mostly written in collaboration with other New Zealand composers.

Mana Tawhiti is the only song for which Boynton provides text and music. It is a heartfelt welcome to her son, interwoven among the gasps and trills of Nunn's long wooden flute, and an enchanting centrepiece.

For many the tone will be set by the opening Gareth Farr songs, Tangi Haehae and Whakamaua Kia O.

The first is a furious song of grief, keened as much as it is sung, backed by a wall of fierce percussion provided by the capital's Strike ensemble. Whakamaua Kia O, a setting of Jennifer Pewhairangi's ode to the survival of Te Reo, is less extrovert, making its point with instrumentals that tease more than provoke.

Boynton sings her heart and her lungs out on much of the album, but pulls down the volume for Gillian Whitehead's minimalist Karakia, with its mesmerisingly simple piano.

Three settings by Paul Booth try for artsong status, as string quartet and piano blend with percussion. For concert listeners these might be the most natural starting point - others might see Booth as a 21st-century John Cale working with his South Pacific Nico.

Miscalculations are few. Some might find Gareth Farr's arrangement of He Wawata, with piano stylings straight out of Richard Clayderman, a little cheesy, but Boynton's take on Princess Te Rangi Pai's classic Hine e Hine is far more disappointing.

With the most pedestrian of piano accompaniments, Boynton and Wiremu Winitana dare to compete with the great Ana Hato and Deane Waretini in their classic 1927 recording of the song. There is no competition.

* Mere Boynton & Friends, Waikohu (Trust Records MMT 2034)