Waikato music legends join forces for new project AWE and New Zealand tour

Waikato-based musicians Dr Jeremy Mayall (left) and Horomona Horo have joined forces for the musical project AWE. Photo / Mark Hamilton

Waikato-based musicians Horomona Horo (Ngāpuhi, Taranaki, Ngāti Porou) and Jeremy Mayall have joined forces for a special musical project called AWE.

As AWE, Horo and Mayall combine electronic musical elements with taonga puoro (traditional Māori instruments) weaving together the traditional with the contemporary, including stories and different cultural practices.

Throughout June, AWE will bring their unique sound to six centres across New Zealand, starting in Hamilton on June 8.

Mayall says: “We have been fortunate enough to share this music in various spaces around the world, and ... around Aotearoa, but it is a thrill to be touring this work throughout the motu as AWE, bringing our sonic explorations to new audiences and new spaces.”

Inspired by the beauty and wonder of what can emerge between worlds, the sonic explorers create immersive, atmospheric blends of distinctively New Zealand soundscapes.

The musical pieces set to be performed in the upcoming concerts come from AWE’s self-titled debut album, as well as improvised pieces and music from the local hapū of each of the towns AWE will perform in.

Mayall says AWE’s music is “a fusion of worlds expressed through conversation. Linking various traditions and technologies, [it] acknowledges the past and also looks to the future.”

The concerts will take place in Hamilton, New Plymouth, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, thanks to a cooperation with Chamber Music New Zealand Puoro Taiwhanga Aotearoa.

Horomona Horo is a composer, practitioner, and cross-genre collaborator who fuses taonga puoro within a diverse range of cultural and musical forms.

Dr Jeremy Mayall is a composer, producer, and performer who works in music, sound art, installation, and multimedia formats to explore the interrelationships between sound, time, space, the senses and the human experience.

For more information and tickets to the other performances visit the Chamber Music New Zealand website.

The Details - Hamilton

What: AWE in concert

When: June 8, at 7.30pm

Where: Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, University of Waikato

Tickets: from $11.50, available online via Ticketek