Ruasagavulu ka lima (Fiji, 2025)

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

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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

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Hans Landon-Lane

Hans Landon-Lane plays accordion, ukulele and vocal on

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856):

‘Sonnet on Summer‘

“The sweet breath of summer blows fresh o’er each plain

The woods have resumed their lost grandeur again

The grove with the notes of the blackbirds are singing

By fountain and stream the wild flowers are springing […]”

‘The Land of My Youth

“I sing of the land where in youth I have rambled

I sing of her heroes who long long are gone

And I sing of her steep crags where oft I have scrambled

When dull pining cares to me were unknown […]”

‘Here’s a Health to my Cronies’

Here’s a health to my cronies where e’er they reside,

whether this side or that o’ yon big rowing tide

I care na what country or kingdom they claim, be they English or Irish to me it’s the same

Gif their hearts to a glass o’ gude whisky incline, I instantly class them as cronies o’ mine […]”

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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” →

Sonnet on Summer

A duo with my nephew, Hans Landon-Lane, from Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

Rosemary Bromley, Dave Edwards, Hans Landon-Lane

Clever Hansel – ukulele vocal
Dave Edwards – guitar, harmonica, vocal

This was the last in-person collaboration before the COVID-19 shutdown, recorded in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, March 2020.

THE sweet breath of summer blows fresh o’er each plain,

The woods have resumed their lost grandeur again;

The groves with the notes of the blackbird are ringing,

By fountain and streamlet the wild ﬂowers are springing.

And the breath of the heather bell sweetens the breeze,

And the old stormy ocean lies slumbering in peace;

And the wild bees are humming around the wild ﬂowers,

Afar above earth the lark proudly soars;

The bleat of the lamb on the moss-cover’d hill,

The sound of the shepherd’s pipe jocund and shrill,

All tell in a language most striking and plain,

T hat summer, fair summer, is reigning again,

The old face of nature her smiles has put on,

And the blustery appearance of winter has ﬂown.

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

Suva, Fiji

Further listening

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

Continue reading →

16 February @ Fernside Gardens Open Days

I played solo acoustic at the Fernside Gardens Open Day on Sunday 16th February, 11am.

Continue reading “16 February @ Fernside Gardens Open Days” →

The Winter: Exit Points (2015)

Today is the last day of winter in the southern hemisphere – so to celebrate, here’s the fifth album from The Winter – a New Zealand free improvisation trio of Mike Kingston, Simon Sweetman and Dave Edwards… with a sound that swerves from acoustic folk/blues with hints of Asian, Celtic, and Balkan influences, to electroacoustic soundscapes, abstract dissonance, and pots & pans percussion.

Mike Kingston: guitar, bass, clarinet, electronics
Dave Edwards: guitar, bass, banjo, harmonica, ukulele, sanshin, electronics
Simon Sweetman: drums and percussion, electronics

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Ngumbang

The first collaboration with even more legendary & underground NZ artist Snake Beings.

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About

Ngumbang is the first collaborative album by two of New Zealand’s more unusual artist/musician/filmmaker/ethnomusicologists.

Performed on guitars, bass, banjo, percussion, saxophones, clarinets, harmonicas, synthesisers, Okinawan sanshin, ukulele, violin, loop pedal, piano, drums and spoken word.

The title ‘Ngumbang’ is an Indonesian word that refers to the slight difference in tuning between a pair of gamelan instruments, which gives gamelan music its shimmering quality.

The album name reflects a shared interest in ethnomusicology and experimentation, and the almost-but-not-quite-equivalent approaches of these two artists.

The album was recorded in and near Auckland, New Zealand in 2014–2015 and includes live performances at Vitamin S and the Audio Foundation.

Emit Snake-Beings,

who over several decades has travelled intensively in Spain, Holland, the Middle East, Mexico, America and Japan, is a New Zealand / British experimental filmmaker and musician who has produced over 40 independently released film soundtrack CDs and made a number of short experimental and narrative films in Spain, U.K. and New Zealand. www.snakebeings.co.nz

Dave Black,

originally from Taranaki and active since the late 90s on the NZ underground music scene, began by fusing acoustic songs, noisy postpunk, spoken word and avant-garde improvisation – and has diversified further from there. Notable performances include the award-winning 14-piece Ascension Band, appearing as an international artist at the Liquid Architecture Festival in Brisbane, Australia, and teaching a thousand Okinawan school students to perform a haka. www.fiffdimension.com

Tracklist

1.	Huia Vortex (feat. Nat da Hatt) 03:56
2.	The Feathered Serpent Sings Again 05:13
3.	Illbelly Gritts 03:57
4.	Watching a Painting Melt 01:47
5.	さくらさくら (Japanese folk song) – live at the Audio Foundation 04:52
6.	Pig in the Bamboo 01:47
7.	Live at Vitamin S (#1.5) 04:37
8.	Pick up the Pieces (after the gig) 04:48
9.	Pick up the Pieces (after the jam session) 04:45
10.	Ornery Return Cravings 02:40
11.	kuningan dan perunggu (Indonesian brass and bronze) 02:50
12.	So Long Notes 06:01

Further Listening

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The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)

Acoustic instrumental music by Wellington, New Zealand, improvising trio The Winter.

Mike Kingston: charango, guitar, clarinet

Dave Edwards: ukulele, sanshin, tenor sax, piano

Simon Sweetman: xylophone, percussion

Continue reading “The Winter: Flying Visit (2012)” →

The Winter: 2011

2011 – year of the Christchurch earthquakes, the Arab Spring, the Fukushima disaster, the shootings in Norway,the Queensland floods… and the Wellington (New Zealand) winter was colder than usual.