Aurongo ~ Inner Listening

Two albums cut from the same cloth. The first presents the original, improvised recordings of Phil Dadson (playing a multi-voiced bespoke instrument called the "gloop") and Rob Thorne (playing his big brown sack of evocative taonga pūoro) mixed with clarity and precision by Colleen Brennan. Steve Garden takes a more improvised approach for the second album, reshaping the material into three suites that traverse very different aural environments.

AURONGO-INNER LISTENING is an innovative musical journey, a collaborative work that seeks to immerse listeners in a sonic landscape rich in imaginative possibilities, a mesmerising album in which indigenous tradition and contemporary innovation converge.

"Currently, I favour improvising over composing as a way of being and responding in the moment, unfettered by the conscious mind. When performers are on a similar wavelength, as in this recording with Rob, the clarity of transmission and communication gives rise to unexpected magic." - Phil Dadson

"The purpose is the journey and not the destination. All decisions in my creative practice dwell within the now, suspended in a state of deep listening, made effective immediately and then renounced the moment they are activated." - Rob Thorne

"When Phil and Rob sent me their recorded improvisations, I was immediately struck by the opportunity the recordings offered to do as Phil and Rob had done and take an improvisatory approach to mixing, a departure point for further intuitive creativity. A third version is also in the works, a 5.1 quadrophonic mix that takes the improvised material further towards a more ambiguous sonic deep space." - Steve Garden