The Cloud Maker (NZ/AUS)
Paddington NSW 2021
AustraliaPaddington Uniting Church
Saturday 1 November from 8pm to 11pm
“…a celestial force weaving together cultural myths, improvisation, and sonic landscapes that transport listeners across time and space in a celebration of feminine energy.“
– THEMUSIC.COM.AU
The Cloud Maker’s music celebrates goddesses from each of the five female master musician’s cultures. Channelling ancient tales of fierce battles, shaman dances, journeys to the after-life, and a moth goddess singing the most beautiful song of all time. Featuring Taonga Pūoro (Maori singing treasures), Bass clarinet, Harmonic flutes, Cello, Nyckelharpa (Nordic fiddle), Drums and Voices, The Cloud Maker harnesses the power of these archetypal stories to transport listeners across time and space. Woven together through sound and performance, they remember ancient bloodlines and breathe new life into old stories.
The Cloud Maker is a collaboration that began on the snowy peaks of Canada, where Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Sunny Kim and Aviva Endean met on a residency at The Banff Centre in 2019. In a cosy wooden hut, they connected over a story of the Maori moth goddess Raukatauri, the creation story of the Putorino, a cocoon shaped flute, and just one of the many tāonga pūoro(singing treasures) which Taumata plays.
On another mountain, at the Ukaria centre in the Adelaide Hills, The Cloud Maker delved deeper into their connection, with an expanded line up interweaving Te Kahureremoa’s knowledge of the Maori Tāonga Pūoro (including nose flutes, bone flutes and poi) Aviva’s experimental approach to clarinets and winds and Sunny’s evocative vocals, alongside master instrumentalists Freya Schack-Arnott (cello/nyckelharpa) and Maria Moles (drums).
Each masterful musician brought to the project their unique musical voices as well as their stories. We met Mayari, the Filipino goddess of the moon, Freya, the Norse Goddess of love, fertility, battle and death, Princess Bari who is worshipped by Korean shamans and is told to have resurrected her parents with the water of life, Miriam, the Jewish prophetess who inspired women into song and dance after crossing the red sea, and who carried a miraculous well as they wandered through the desert, The Selkies, mythological Irish creatures who can transform between seal and human form, and Hine Pu Te Hue, the goddess of the gourd who swallows the storm.