The Marion Flow (part 2, Wellington 2001)

: produced by Paul Winstanley, & featuring Chris O’Connor (drums), Chris Palmer (electric guitars), Simon O’Rorke (percussion). Recorded at Thistle Hall, Wellington, 2001, and mixed by Joe Callwood.

For the earlier 1999 New Plymouth sessions see The Marion Flow (part 1, Taranaki);

The Marion Flow was originally a longer album which spanned recordings from New Plymouth in 1999 and Wellington in 2001.

It’s lo-fi, organic and about as eclectic as one could manage. Kind of reminds me of Nick Cave if he had grown up in Timaru. No pretentious American accents or catch phrase choruses, just a bunch of people making music. A little beauty!” – NZ Musician, August/September 2002

By the time the opportunity arose to finish recording the Marion Flow I’d been thoroughly immersed in the Wellington free jazz and avant-garde music scene, and was very fortunate to have help from some of the top players there. I’d never studied music at school or been in a conventional band, and was out of my depth technically… so working around my limitations became a spark to creativity.

In 1999, aged 20, I’d left New Plymouth, a large rural town, where I grew up, and moved to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city, where I’d been born and where my early pakeha settler ancestors had lived in the 19th century. The Marion Flow reflects this journey, geographically, sonically and spiritually.

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I’ve now reissued the two halves of the album separately – to emphasise the sense of time and place, and stylistic evolution, and to re-present them more concisely for the short-attention-span 21st century.

Edwards’ music is often a sculpture rather than a melodic composition. Within this chosen form, amongst all the writings rantings & poetry there’s much difficult pleasure to be had for the musically adventurous.” – Brent Cardy, Real Groove, July 2002

Further listening

Continue reading “The Marion Flow (part 2, Wellington 2001)”

Cafes in Conversation

4th May 2019 at Wairarapa TV May Music Marathon

I wrote this in 1999, after moving to Wellington. I was at an open mic night, at an upstairs bar in Cuba Mall that no longer exists, waiting for my turn to play. I had to wait a while – hence a lot of lyrics.

It was my attempt at a beat poet vibe, reflecting my move to the capital city and discovery of a local jazz scene. Continue reading “Cafes in Conversation”

A Visit to the Beehive

A pleasant surprise this week to get a small (single figure) royalty payment from APRA for radio airplay for the shortest track from The Marion Flow, recorded back in 2001!

That goes some way towards recovering the $600 or so I spent recording the album (a lot of money for a broke student back then). I can’t claim it’s a prescient political satire that predicted this week’s news events, but maybe like the album as a whole it’s just timeless…

It’s also, for fans of Wellington avant-garde music, a rare opportunity to hear Simon O’Rorke play a straight rock beat on drums!

The Beehive is the nickname for the Executive Wing of New Zealand’s government building in Wellington .

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005

“Whilst shopping from fiffdimension make sure to get hold of ‘Gleefully Unknown’, a best-of compilation of Dave Edwards’ music from 1997 to 2005.   Rough outsider folk-blues mysteries, dissonant rock textures, electric and acoustic improvisations…

“Edwards strikes me as one of the most overlooked musicians from the fertile lands of New Zealand and if you need a fresh start this might very well be the place.” – Mats Gustafsson, The Broken Face

Now available from Spotify, Bandcamp etc

A compilation of songs, spoken word and instrumentals from the first half of my gloriously unsuccessful career to date:

by Dave Edwards (acoustic & electric guitars, harmonica, bass, banjo, vocal)

with

Mike Kingston (cello, acoustic guitar),

Paul Winstanley (fretless bass, turntables),

Simon Sweetman (percussion),

Nigel Patterson (hammond organ),

Cylvi M (percussion),

Simon O’Rorke (percussion),

Francesca Mountfort (cello),

Jeff Henderson (clarinet),

Blair Latham (alto sax),

Sam Prebble (violin, percussion),

Chris Palmer (electric guitar),

Chris O’Connor (drums),

Antony Milton (violin, keyboards),

Frey (laptop),

Dean Brown (drums)

and more…

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Featuring tracks from the albums

Scratched Surface (1997-1998)

in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)

The Marion Flow (1999-2001)

Mantis Shaped and Worrying (2002)

The Winter: Parataxes (2003)

Loose Autumn Moans (2003)

Live 2004 (2004)

After Maths & Sciences (2005-2006)

… if you enjoy this, try the sequels Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012 and Other Islands: 2012-2018