A composer’s response to critical moments in time: The moments when time pivots and history changes course. Charlotte Wilson & Alpha Maiava host this series about the music of Aotearoa New Zealand that follows moments in our history that have had an impact on us and changed or altered who we are.
Season 1, Episode 3
“Solidarity is a hugely important thing, in life, particularly in this period of ghastly late capitalism. If you don’t have solidarity within the cornerstones of justice and what’s right for people and workers, you don’t have very much to base a society on. So I think that’s the root of what I enjoy about protests. It’s the people, where everyone is feeling as one, and marching with a purpose. There’s something very powerful about that to me as a creative individual.”
New Zealand's biggest city has seen its fair share of protests and noise. And who better to capture the voice of that city than a composer who has never been shy of politics, who has a deep fascination with soundscapes and colours, textures, and the possibilities of the human voice. She is Eve de Castro-Robinson, and in 'Cries of Auckland', she begins with the cries that punctuated her childhood — the cries of the 'Star' newspaper boys on Queen Street — as a springboard for the cries that she herself has chanted in protest marches through the streets of Auckland through the decades.
In this programme, Eve talks about her relationship with Auckland, protests, sonic art, graphic design, her composing philosophy, and her development of a creative persona and voice that is always arresting — beautiful, colourful, thought-provoking, and above all, rooted in the real world.
Host: Charlotte Wilson
Guests: Eve de Castro-Robinson
Links & Resources
More details on the composer and the associated work here.
Link to the film of Cries of Auckland
This episode was brought to you by SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.
Production team
- Executive Producer: Diana Marsh
- Producer: Charlotte Wilson
- Sound Engineer: Phil Brownlee
Special thanks to RNZ Concert for providing the audio of Cries of Auckland performed by the Karlheinz Company