SUNDAY AT EARTHSKIN workshop – Muriwai site – 29 December 2019, 2 pm with Sibylle Mayr
. More info to come…

November 2019, a musical album called ‘Taihua’ from Benjamin and Thomas…

Since last autumn in Muriwai, many things happened. Thomas and I worked on the materials we found in New Zealand, and today I am very proud to send you the first part of our project. It is a musical album, called ‘Taihua’.

‘Taihua’ is a Māori word. It refers to the intertidal zone, area between the limits of low and high-tide.

‘Taihua’ is the antechamber of the ocean.

We strode along many ‘Taihuas’ in New Zealand, searching for sounds and noises, shells, outlooks to native forests or distant islands.

We strolled by a mighty and often restless ocean. We surfed on rising tide waves and ran barefoot in the wet ‘Taihua’ of the Muriwai beach. We witnessed dusk there, and we photographed pink skies, the surface of the water as a mirror. We captured the echo of caves we could only enter at low-tide. We examined sand covered in shells that chimed like winds, and arranged them by note, depending on their size.

Then, we went deeper in the land, along the streams, still barefoot. We threw ourselves into native forests, surrounded by chatty endemic birds.

All 8 pieces of ‘Taihua’ are about hyper locality. They hold sounds harvested on site, from the crazy melodic phrases of the tūī or the piwakawaka, to the upbeat rhythmical patterns of the insects.

Humans also have a role in this story, they simply made sure they took off their shoes, and reconnected with matter.

You can listen to it on my Bandcamp page (headphones recommended):

https://benjamingibert.bandcamp.com/

Thomas is still working on the second part, which is a video. You can see the teasers he already did to announce the album, here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjuxaFIWEFyY19ejg-oudw/videos?view_as=subscriber

Here’s the website for Taihua:

https://bengig46.wixsite.com/benjamingibert/taihua

We would like to thank you for the inspiring conditions you gave us in Muriwai and the opportunities it represents. We hope that you will enjoy the music, and we are looking forward to showing you the next step.

Benjamin and Thomas.

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The film ‘The Need To GROW’ is now available globally on Vimeo. 

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In March 2019, during her residency at Earthskin, Gabryel Harrison shared some of her insights on her blog. Please take the time to appreciate these gifts:

Will The Land Return To Singing

My place of residence, the yurt

What I Thought About When I Thought About Drawing

Master copies

The beauty of birds

Remembering Christchurch