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Reviewed by Sam Carswell

Richard Nunns & Mark Lockett: Redaction

Reviewed by Sam Carswell

Richard Nunns & Mark Lockett: Redaction

The birth of ‘Redaction’ – a daring new collaboration between Richard Nunns’ taonga pūoro and Mark Lockett on drums, assisted and produced by Jeff Henderson – is excellently detailed in the booklet accompanying. Surrounded by Veronica Hodgkinson’s gorgeous artwork, we learn that the album came into being following the teaming of the two to provide soundscapes for her 2013 exhibition. Henderson was then called in to flesh the recordings of these performances out into the album we have today, hence the name. Title track and opener displays Lockett’s sense of groove fantastically, which features again on Two Minds. Routine Inspection is stereo imaging at its best, complementing some great interplay between Nunns, Henderson and Lockett. Engineer Steve Garden worked wonders on this. Material Instinct begins a distorted wildness that develops through Revival (one incredible musical experience) before dying out to give way to the ever-growing drone of La Morte. Hodgkinson’s visuals are inseparable from the music, illustrating the complexity of the feelings conveyed through each piece. There’s a sense of instinct that seems in touch with the constants of human nature. The works, both audio and visual, connect the past, present and future in a way that speaks universally, unhinged by constraints of time or place. There’s something in both that gets beneath the surface, that connects with things deeper, or more visceral, than a lot of music does, and – in short – it’s exhilarating.