Tag: Fiji

2025 roundup

Another productive year here! We released:

Featherston Free Sound Ensemble
The Troubled Times: dDA
Ruasagavulu ka lima (Fiji)
Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)
The Troubled Times: Sparkle Tube
Homo Homini Lupus (compilation)
Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)
The Troubled Times: Unsteady Ground

Ruasagavulu ka lima (Fiji)

An acoustic solo album, made in the Yasawa islands, Fiji. Ukulele and field recordings, with acoustic bass and percussion.

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

A musical adaptation of my ancestor’s book, finally ‘close enough’ to finished after seven years… or 169, depending how you count it.

in the Scotch Dialect

in the English Dialect

Featherston Free Sound Ensemble

A new collaboration with turntablists Guy Walker and Alex V – free improv electronica for the regions.

Live @ the Bakehouse 29-11-25

Our live debut – more to come in 2026!

Experiments Under the Hills

October-November, with Guy Walker and Alex V

First Experiments

September-October, with Guy Walker

The Troubled Times

with Antony Milton and David Heath in Masterton NZ.

Unsteady Ground

As close as we’ve come to a ‘political’ album

dDA

We swapped instruments and almost formed a new band.

Homo Homini Lupus

We appeared on this ‘various artists’ compilation from Louisville, Kentucky

Sparkle Tube

Dave and Antony duo

Smudge

Winter was too cold for the garage, so we played ‘lounge music’

Thanks for listening! See you in 2026...

Ruasagavulu ka lima (Fiji, 2025)

A suite of short acoustic instrumentals and Pacific islands tropical ambience – recorded in the Yasawa islands of Fiji.

Listen

About

Main tracks improvised outdoors on ukulele and lali (log drum), on Tavewa island, early April 2025. Acoustic bass and hand drum overdubbed after returning home.

Tracklist

1.Arrival / Bula Maleya 01:12
2.Lali kei Basa : iMatai ni Wase 01:58
3.Tawakilai 02:45
4.Ono walu: mataqali dua 03:07
5.Lali kei Basa: iKarua ni Wase 01:04
6.iMatai ni iVolatukutuku 03:39
7.Idabedabe me vesu 02:15
8.Na ikalawa ni yava 02:10
9.Ono walu: mataqali rua 02:45
10.Mai Ifrika 02:23
11.Vakaciri ena buca 01:03
12.Siga malumu 02:42
13.Vakacava 01:02
14.Koro ni uciwai 03:26
15.Vakadidike 01:07
16.Buli soro 01:15
17.Lali kei Basa: vakalevu 01:13
18.Qito ni bola 01:33
19.Bokola ni manu 04:25
20.Na vula 03:23
21.Mali 01:23
22.Na blue i Dua 02:28
23.Konei mai 02:17
24.Sau ni lesu 04:46
25.Elario Irava – Isa Lei Lia 04:38

Background

The title ‘Ruasagavulu ka lima‘ is the number 25 in Fijian;
this is a followup to the first Fijian album Ruasagavulu (2020), recorded in Suva w/ Emit Snake-Beings)

credits

releases June 21, 2025

‘Tevita’ Edwards – ukulele, lali, djembe, acoustic bass, field recordings
——————-

Recorded on Tavewa island, Yasawas, Fiji, early April 2025
Bass & drum overdubs recorded in Featherston NZ, April/May 2025

Continue reading “Ruasagavulu ka lima (Fiji, 2025)” →

Ruasagavulu

Out now – the new album

by Dave Black & Dr Emit Snake-Beings

Made in Fiji

“So easy to get totally lost in this music, recommend for helping with your inner peace” – Andi Verse

Indo-Fijian inspired tropical devotional avant-garde instrumentals for keyboards, ukulele, dholak, duduk, harmonicas, DIY kitchen gamelan, and video.

  

Snake Beings & Dave Black in Fiji

This was one of the last in-person international collaborations from before the world ended… it’s got nothing to do with the pandemic.

It was recorded in Suva, Fiji, 2nd and 4th of November 2019.

The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade optimistically.

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Further listening

Our first duo recording was ‘Ngumbang‘  (2015) –

a fusion of several genres and a DIY manifesto – “Pick up the pieces and make them into something new, it’s what we do…”

Continue reading “Ruasagavulu” →

Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji

Made in Suva, Fiji – the new album by Dave Black & Dr Emit Snake-Beings

“So easy to get totally lost in this music, recommend for helping with your inner peace” – Andi Verse

 

Indo-Fijian inspired tropical devotional avant-garde instrumentals for keyboards, ukulele, dholak, duduk, harmonicas, DIY kitchen gamelan, and video.

This was one of the last in-person international collaborations from before the world ended.

 The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade.

recorded in Suva, Fiji, 2nd November 2019

Further listening

Our first duo recording was ‘Ngumbang‘  (2015) –

Continue reading “Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji” →

Isa Lei, and the Yasawa islands, Fiji

This rearrangement of a traditional Fijian folk song was inspired by hearing the song sung there.

In May I visited the Yasawa Islands, to the northwest of Nadi and the main Fijian island Viti Levu.

Yasawa islands, Fiji
Yasawa islands, Fiji
Yasawa islands, Fiji

The boat ride took 3 hours, and enjoyably scenic. Each of the many small islands we passed was different in some way but all stunning

The marine life included

Part of Other Islands: 2012-2018

– recent highlights recorded in New Zealand, Western Australia, Fiji, Indonesia and Okinawa

Viti Levu, Fiji

My first visit to a Pacific island country, apart from my own (though the term is ambiguous – I’m not counting Australia, Indonesia or Japan).  I’d always wanted to visit Fiji, due to family connections… I may have even been conceived there.  A week’s visit to Viti Levu, the largest and most populated island, in September was all too short but still a great introductory taster.

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First stop was Nadi, Continue reading “Viti Levu, Fiji” →