Castro-Robinson: The Gristle Of Knuckles

NEW ZEALAND MUSIC AWARDS WINNER - Best Classical Recording 2018

"As it's title suggests, Eve de Castro-Robinson's The Gristle of Knuckles is something very different, even for her. While it is impossible to easily categorise her vast and diverse music, for these recordings she was inspired the idea of gathering unlikely collaborators and letting them loose on reworkings or improvising on her material.

Among the players are Nathan Haines (whose flutes and bansuri on the often brusque and elephantine howling Doggerel set something of the tone), Delaney Davidson, Don McGlashan, jazz players Kevin Field, Kingsley Melhuish (on taonga puoro and tuba), Callum Passells and Ron Samsom, singer Mere Boynton and NZTrio cellist Ashley Brown.

The composer herself plays toy piano, kalimba and music box on the final, two minute track of whimsical discovery of found sounds and random results Key Rings with drummer and co-producer Steve Garden (also on "chiming toy"). In its considered but almost childlike enjoyment of quieter sounds it is as far from Haines' bruising opener as can be imagined.

Between those two points Don McGlashan on intimate vocals and numerous instruments (including searing and singing guitar) undertakes de Castro-Robinson's oceanic setting of a Len Lye poem, The Long Dream of Walking where the sudden clashes of percussion refer to Lye's sonic sculpture." Graham Reid