Redaction

Redaction, featuring renowned taonga pūoro exponent Richard Nunns, one of our longest serving and most consistently adventurous artists, was conceived first and foremost as an art-project.

The inspiration for the recording project that led to the production of Redaction came from a documentary called Intangible Asset 82, which told the story of Australian jazz drummer Simon Barker and his journey to find the Korean shaman, Kim Seok-Chul. Barker's journey led to the recording of a series of improvisations featuring him on drums, Scott Tinkler on trumpet, and Bae ll Dong on voice.

Artistic photographer Veronica Hodgkinson envisaged an artistic collaboration between sound and image that would eventually become the audio/visual exhibition Finding Time, which ran at Melbourne's Brunswick St Gallery in March 2013. Her idea was to team her partner, jazz drummer Mark Lockett, with Richard Nunns to record a series of wholly spontaneous improvisations that would serve as aural soundscapes to which Veronica would respond by creating equally improvised images using light and photographic chemistry.

Both Veronica's images and the music created for them by Richard and Mark (and later, Jeff) seek connections and commonalities through the non-verbalized, purely intuitive creative responses of each artist. The sound palette was deliberately limited, and the musicians sought an entirely unguarded musical directness, a creative honesty born of the moment and unmediated artistic impulses.

"I've been a huge fan of Richard's work since the first time I heard him in the early 90s", says Mark. "The opportunity to work with both Richard and Steve was one I couldn't resist. When Steve later suggested that we invite Jeff Henderson to produce an album using the recordings for the exhibition as a starting point, I was intrigued and excited. I have huge respect for Jeff, having collaborated with him at various times over the last two decades, and could see the potential for a unique new edition of music. This is how Redaction came to be, and I'm very proud of it."

"Music and photography have strong links to memory", says Veronica. "Having lived in Australia for many years, the longer I'm away from NZ the more importance I place on the notion of Home. The opportunity to collaborate with Richard Nunns was an extraordinary privilege, one that continues to influence my image-making here in New York."

Produced by Jeff Henderson
Recorded by Steve Garden at Garden Shed Music Studio
Mixed by Jeff Hendrson, Steve Garden, Mark Lockett
Original artwork by Veronica Hodgkinson