in a wildflower state (Western Australia, 2013)

In late 2012, after leaving Japan, I moved to Australia for the second time – this time to Western Australia for a couple of years…

in a wildflower state is a lost album – recorded in Perth WA and surrounding regions, between 2012-2014 – unreleased at the time.

The music here is rustic, reflecting the vast ancient arid landscape, overlaid with touches of Nyoongar and bogan sounds. It includes appearances by Nat da Hatt, Cylvi M, and Renato Salvador.

Videos

Tracklist

1.	Didgeridoo overture / overkill 01:47
2.	Dry wind (Fremantle doctor) 01:26
3.	Nat da Hatt + fiffdimension – The Road to Bogandoor (Australian election 2013 mix) 03:46
4.	Sandalwood & Quandong 04:38
5.	Ukulele & magpies 01:23
6.	Kalgoorlie super pit 04:25
7.	Brazilian BBQ (ft Renato Salvador) (bonus) 04:33
8.	Rabbit proof fence (bonus) 03:19
9.	Nat da Hatt + fiffdimension – The Horror (sports mix) (bonus) 03:35
10.	Scabbers’ beach 02:45
11.	Cylvi M – Ode to Ed Kuepper 01:06
12.	Mundaring Weir 01:49
13.	Stomping in Freo (bonus) 02:17
14.	Kalbarri coastline 04:55
15.	Stromatolites 01:49
16.	Inverno ’13 (Indian Ocean sunsets)

Life in Western Australia, 2012-2014

Known as ‘the Wildflower State’, Western Australia covers an enormous area – the size of India, but with a population of under three million. Metaphorically, to be a ‘wildflower’ can also mean a wandering spirit or traveller (such as a kiwi expat on an OE).

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Other Islands: 2012-2018

“The 20 song album covers traditional Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Asian folk music, to free jazz, and free noise. It’s not for anyone with narrow preconceived ideas about what music is, but it is for everyone else.

“If you have an open inquiring mind and love hearing a variety of sound, this is excellent.” – Darryl Baser, muzic.net.nz

fiffdimension compilation vol3 – (see also Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005, Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012, and águas Brilhantes: 2018-2022)
Made in New Zealand, Okinawa (Japan), Western Australia, Indonesia, and Fiji.

Includes tracks by The Winter, Dave Black & Nat da Hatt, Confluence Quintet, Gamelan Sekar Puri, Gamelan Padhang Moncar, Gamelan Taniwha Jaya, The Electricka Zoo, Dave Black & Snake Beings, Dave Black & Campbell Kneale.

by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, ukulele, sanshin, saron, jublag, demung, vocal), with

Mike Kingston (charango, acoustic guitar),
Simon Sweetman (percussion),
Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards, banjo),
Emit Snake-Beings (banjo, vocal, percussion, flute, electronics),
the Digitator (electric drums, keyboards & loops),
Campbell Kneale (electric guitar, analogue synthesiser),
Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),
Blair Latham (bass clarinet),
Simon O’Rorke (keyboards),
Chris Prosser (violin),
Julie Bevan (acoustic guitar),
plus Indonesian gamelan ensembles led by Sofari Hidayat, Budi Putra, and Gareth Farr,

a song written by my great-great-grandfather John Collie (1856),

and field recordings from Western Australia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan), and Fiji.

Featuring tracks from the albums

The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)
in the non-idiomatic idiom in Norway (1999/2014)
ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes (2010-15)
Ngumbang (2014-15)
The Winter: Exit Points (2015)
The Electricka Zoo (2017)
and previously unheard tracks.

If you enjoy this, try the previous compilations

Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005

Kalbarri, Western Australia

Music and video by Dave Black & Cylvi Manthyng from a road trip north from Perth, Western Australia. Kalbarri is a small town of just over a thousand people, known for its rocky coastline, red landscape, spring flowers, and pounding surf.

a coiled didgeridoo

in Western Australia, 2013

acoustic guitar & banjo

The Road to Bogandoor

Election night 2013 in Australia mix –

At the time I lived in Perth, WA.

And Australia Day music video from an unfinished Aussie album… enjoy!

Music by Nat da Hatt & Dave Black with Snake Beings, video by Dave Black and Cylvi Manthyng

See also – our first Australian album, After Maths & Sciences,

and Dave Black & Nat da Hatt in Japan: ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes

Dada Songwriting: Rejection dryrot ripple Gombage

Dave and Cylvi contributed to Postmoderncore‘s first volume of Dada Songwriting Compilation, Rejection dryrot ripple Gombage.

Condo Encyclopedia coalseam egg 2:02

by Uneasy Chairs (USA, guitar) / T4x0n0m13s (España, bass + distortion pedal) / Dave Black (NZ, banjo) / Cylvi Manthyng (NZ, shaker)

Download entire album / View album at archive.org

Each contributor created two mins of raw sound – a single track recorded live with no post-processing. After each set of four tracks arrived, they were blindly put together to create each track – as & when they arrived in Corporal Tofulung’s inbox.
The title of the album was created by writing the 40 contributed words on individual pieces of paper & drawing them randomly out of a bucket. Continue reading “Dada Songwriting: Rejection dryrot ripple Gombage” →

Cylvi M: White Suit Walking

A series of performance art pieces conceived & performed by Cylvi Manthyng

fFOMPA TRUST.ORG

A White Suit Walking:

30 Days a Statue.

Continue reading “Cylvi M: White Suit Walking” →

Fame & Oblivion: 2005-2012

“This is something that he has to do, that he will do, come fame or oblivion” –Chris Knox

Made in New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.
Includes tracks by Ascension Band, The Winter, Cylvi M, Wellington’s Most Famous Orchestra of Miraculous Delights, Dave Black & Nat da Hatt.

“As Dave Edwards he has explored fuzzy punk, free-jazz, spoken word, alternative-folk and demented pop… as Dave Black, the palette is broadened” – Simon Sweetman

by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, gayageum, vocal), with

Mike Kingston (acoustic guitar),
Simon Sweetman (percussion),
Nat da Hatt (electric guitar, keyboards),
Cylvi M (vocal, field recordings, percussion, shakuhachi),
Hayden Gifkins (electric guitar),
Nigel Patterson (hammond organ),
Ryan Prebble (tone generator),
Matthew Thornicroft (electric guitar),
Jeff Henderson (drums),
Noel Meek (vocal),
Hans Landon-Lane (ukulele)
and field recordings from Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, and Japan.

“Experimental and avant-garde…. There is a clear passion, and a commitment to pushing the boundaries… This will challenge your perceptions of what constitutes music and open the mind to new possibilities of sounds that surround us – muzic.net.nz“

This is a sequel to the Gleefully Unknown: 1997-2005 compilation.
The third part of the trilogy, Other Islands: 2012-2018, documents my return to NZ via other Asia-Pacific countries,
A fourth volume águas Brilhantes: 2018-2022 covers more recent works made in the Wairarapa and Fiji.

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First Time Around: East Asia (2008)

This is an ethnomusicological album of pieces made from sound recordings, during visits to six different countries in Asia during 2007-2008, The sounds are edited into sonic short stories.

Listen

Credits

Dave Black – field recordings, laptop, gayageum loops, clarinet, acoustic bass, guay, readings
Cylvi M – tangso, shakuhachi, golden egg, singing bowl, readings & rubbings

About

During, and immediately after, a year and a half living in

South Korea 대한민국,

(teaching English for a living, and to fund further travels – see First Time Around: South Korea),

we travelled to:

China 中国

挽歌为长江豚 (Elegy for the Yangtze River Dolphins) 01:22

8. 请介意你的脚步 (Please Mind Your Step) 01:33

Japan 日本

2. Cylvi M – シルビエム在佛的脚在京都 (at Buddha’s Foot, Kyoto) 02:16

Thailand ประเทศไทย

3.	ระดับที่สามพระอารามหลวง (3rd Grade Royal Temple) 04:04
4.	เชียงใหม่ร้านรัฐบาล (Chiang Mai government shop) 02:35
5.	หมู่บ้านกะเหรี่ยง (The Karen Village) 04:10

Vietnam Việt Nam

6.	Việt Nam chào buổi tối (Good Evening Vietnam) 02:25
7.	núi và rất cây (Mountain and Very Tree) 04:43

Mongolia Монгол улс

9.	Монголын хувьсгалт нам ((It’s a) Mongolian Revolutionary Party) 02:33
10.	ханаду ямаа (Goats in Xanadu) 03:32

감사합니다 – ありがとうございました – 谢谢 – ขอขอบคุณคุณ – cảm ơn bạn – Баярлалаа!

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Cylvi M at Buddha’s foot, Kyoto 京都

These recordings were made on my first visit to Japan in 2007, on a side-trip while living in South Korea.

I subsequently lived in Okinawa in 2011–2012, and travelled further around Kyushu and Honshu.

South Island Sessions (2006)

Recorded in Nelson, NZ, 2006.

Listen

About

1861 revisited – my pākeha (European) ancestors, John ‘Totara Jack’ and Mary Edwards, arrived in the South Island of New Zealand on board the Olympus and settled in Nelson¹.

John ‘Totara Jack’ Edwards

Nelson, New Zealand

When I lived nearby a century and a half later,

I found the address where they’d lived, just below a spot on a hill that marks the geographical centre of NZ.
I recorded and toured with South Island musicians;
studied at the Nelson School of Music – and finally had the chance to learn some ‘conventional’ technique;
played in Hokitika, Greymouth, Westport, Nelson, Blenheim, Lyttelton and Dunedin
- (as well as Brisbane, Australia²);
and recorded the sound of tui and makomako (native birds) in Nelson Lakes National Park.

The early settler stories marked the start of an interest in genealogy, and prompted the music video for The Ballad of William Knife³ (loosely based on ‘Totara Jack’).

In contrast to the ‘traditional’ South Island NZ ‘Flying Nun‘ or The Dead C inspired sounds, South Island Sessions blended acoustic instruments with field recordings and electronic glitches. I played acoustic guitar, banjo and saxophone, and delegated the electric guitar role to two local players. We named this new genre “Steampunk Folktronica“⁴.

Credits

Dave Black – acoustic guitar (2,6), banjo (3,4,6), drums (4), harmonica (2), laptop, field recordings, tenor saxophone (6,7), and vocals
Cylvi M – vocals & phat beatz (1)
Hayden Gifkins – electric guitar (5,7)
Matthew Thornicroft – electric guitar (5,7)
Damian ‘Frey’ Stewart – no-input mixing desk (3)
Cookie – drums (5, 6)