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ALEXANDER IVASHKIN, ORA BARLOW AND KIM HALLIDAY: Pacific Voyage

Fusing Western and indigenous styles has long been a fashionable concept, with many artists striving to create an artistic endeavour or a commercial piece fitting with a particular style. Performed by memory and improvisation, ‘Pacific Voyage’ is a step beyond this, an album that embraces multicultural music, the Western, Maori and Polynesian elements combining to create a sense of darkness, foreboding and, in places, haunting melancholy. Alexander Ivashkin’s cello, Kim Halliday’s ukulele, and Ora Barlow’s percussion and taonga puoro form a haunting combination, with evocative tones echoed in the song titles. Night Whispers is a fine example – the staccato rhythms and fingerpicked strings echoing the nocturnal environment. Another is Moteata: Lament, where the sadness is picked up in the cello and taonga puoro, while Rimsy-Korsakov’s Bumble Bee is performed with a playfulness and energy that undercuts the melancholic eerie of much of the surrounding material. As clashing cultures go, Maori and Polynesian instruments and sounds combined with a western classical tradition of cello playing certainly sounds like it shouldn’t work, but the effect is truly stunning. ‘Pacific Voyage’ may not find a large audience, but will be well received by discerning listeners.

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