Love letters to the Pacific

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

As you read this, two of these artists are preparing to play off-shore. Singer-song-writer Black is in Athens for pre-Olympic celebrations with the British-based group 1 Giant Leap, and Te Vaka are off to a festival in Malaysia which starts on Friday.

We can perhaps guess at the positive reception they might get: Black appeared on the internationally acclaimed 1 Giant Leap debut album (she is signed for the next); and through regular touring Te Vaka have built an audience base in Europe.

Later in the year they will be off to Spain, with trips to Taiwan, Singapore and Australia under negotiation. They have three weeks in Hawaii confirmed for next year already.

With the successes of Moana and the Tribe in Europe - back there now - and the trickle-down of Whale Rider, a concept of Pacific cultures must be growing in Europe. But Europe is a big place and while the inroads have been creditable they are still modest.

For the musicians it has meant a viable international profile and touring opportunities rather than exhausting themselves, and their audience, on home turf.

Not that Black, Te Vaka or Moana have exactly wrung us dry by live appearances. Quite the opposite. They appear here too sparingly.

Te Vaka have already won acclaim in World Music circles for their pop-friendly albums and vigorously exotic live show, and the crisply produced Tutuki will consolidate that hard-won reputation.

It is an aural trip into palm-lined Pacific villages and colours the effect with Opetaia Foa'i's typically warm electric guitars and easy melodicism which have that same entrancing quality as King Sunny Ade's juju sound from Nigeria.

But this album should also score them points on the home front. Manu Samoa is a tribute to that team's upset of the Lions in the Rugby World Cup with a potentially terrace-shaking chorus.

Elsewhere, this is a sophisticated album of layers and sonic textures (breathy booming baritone voices, chipping traditional percussion, the sublime ethereal singing of Sulata), and with some tracks sung in English - notably the lovely Tamahana - this is more radio-friendly for mainstream programmers here. Let's hope so anyway - too many terrific Te Vaka tracks have got away in the past.

Black's te reo album will probably still be troublesome to programmers (despite the beautifully produced bilingual booklet of lyrics) yet the sheer elegance of her stripped-simple melodies and her transcendent voice should be impossible to ignore.

Here, over Joel Haines' empathetic acoustic guitars and with Justin Kereama on taonga pouro (flutes, gentle rattles, percussive effects), are songs of masterful understatement: the zen-like musical and lyricism of Tarahati, the crystalline purity of Te kuia turehu o te po.

Black's voice is a rare and delicate instrument, her lyrical concerns embrace the bigger picture of the myths and magic of Maoritanga, and her album could have come from no other place than this.

It is all of a piece - a hushed tone throughout - which some might find too unwaveringly homogeneous, but on repeat listening it emerges as quietly exceptional.

Wellington's TrinityRoots' debut album True two years ago was an unexpectedly mature meltdown of roots, reggae, country and jazz which was steeped in a subtle Maoritanga, and had cello and banjo.

It won best roots album at the music awards last year (despite being up against Te Vaka's equally fine Nukukehe) and is a landmark as something unique in sound and subtlety.

Home, Land and Sea is even more ambitious as they extend their palette to create something which in places is an ambient, almost neo-psychedelic trip and others, a brooding, roots-reggae experience.

There is a sonic geography at work also. Spaces are left so wide clouds could drift through, and harmony vocals ( such as those on The Dream) come off like a breeze along a deserted West Coast beach. Ego courageously stays with a minimal, repeated, Pacifican percussive figure which builds relentlessly like a gathering storm.

There is also a strong ethical agenda at work: respect for those who went before, be the best you can, check your ego, don't sell this land to greedy multinationals. And while it sounds cloying and twee perhaps, the opening track is the simple and soulful Aotearoa, with the sole lyrics, "Aotearoa, ain't it hard to believe, you're so beautiful ... " Simple, but true.

In their own way, each of these three albums is a love letter to this part of the world.

Their lyrics consider its unique history and cultures (and problems we collectively face), the music echoes the sounds of its various landscapes.

Each sounds fresh and personal. They must find this life-affirming music quite astonishing in Europe.

Te Vaka: Tutuki

(Herald rating: * * *)

Label: Spirit of Play

* * *

Whirimako Black: Tangihaku

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Label: Mai Music

* * *

Trinityroots: Home, Land and Sea

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Label: TrinityRoots