A sense of AWE

by Richard Betts
New Zealand Listener, 10 June 2023

Jeremy Mayall was heard about long before he was heard. Whispers started to emerge in the early 2000s. “There’s this guy,” people were saying, “down at Waikato uni. He’s creating these weird combinations of instruments.” Soon, Symphony No 1 for Turntables and Orchestra emerged, a hip-hop symphony performed by the National Youth Orchestra in 2005. Then came the Electric Bass Concerto, and other genre-busting oddities.

Mayall, now Dr Mayall and chief executive of Creative Waikato, still likes to fuse sound worlds; he is currently performing with leading taonga puoro practitioner Horomona Horo.

Their Chamber Music New Zealand tour is called AWE, which can be pronounced in the English "awe" or the Māori "AH-way" (“It means similar things in both languages," says Mayall, "so it doesn’t matter how you say it”), and features a combination of electronics, live sounds and traditional Māori instruments.

The pair met through the late musicologist Richard Nunns. “I was performing with Richard at Waikato University and he asked if Horomona could come along,” Mayall recalls. “Horo turned up; I said, ‘Nice to meet you. You’re not going to be on stage, I’m going to put you outside by the lake and run a microphone out. The audience will never see you but they’ll hear you playing with the natural environment.’ He goes, ‘Awesome’.”

The connection has lasted 15 years in various forms, including soundtracks, commissions and performances. AWE’s music is 60-70% composed, with the rest improvised, and each musician is responsible for writing his own parts.

“But we often do that writing in a room together and bat ideas around: what if it sounded like this; what if this did this?”

Horo is Mayall’s closest collaborator but he is by no means the only one. Working with a range of people has taken Mayall further down the "weird combinations" route, to the point where instead of playing instruments, he’s now playing with our senses.

“There are fascinating memory triggers that come with taste and smell. We’re better at recalling things through them than through other forms. So if I’m putting on a concert and trying to give people an experience that taps into their emotions and memory, why wouldn’t I include smell and taste?”

Mayall’s accomplices have therefore included a baker, a perfumier, and a mixologist who makes drinks for the composer’s live Sonic Cocktails project.

“People bring so much of their own emotion and memory and experience. The [audience] discussions afterwards are fascinating. From the same drink and piece of music, people are having different memories of childhood or adventures in the rainforest or a romantic liaison. There’s something about being in a room and having an experience that is individual but collective.”

Jeremy Mayall and Horomona Horo, CMNZ Series AWE, touring until 17 June.

Republished with the kind permission of the New Zealand Listener