WHO: Asni – formerly a world-travelling harper who settled down in Wellington five years ago and now presents her first New Zealand solo CD release featuring an unusual combination of medieval, traditional, contemporary and original harp music with Maori traditional taonga puoro (performed by Alistair Fraser).
Support: Tahu – Henare Walmsley, taonga puoro & Mike Hogan, guitar.

WHY: Don’t miss this rare opportunity to experience Asni performing live!

*Travels in Middle-earth* is available online on www.asni.net and other outlets.
CDs will be available for sale at the door - buy a CD and get in free!

Music in Middle-earth: The fantasy world created by J.R.R.Tolkien has woven itself into our modern global culture - and boosted not only the NZ film industry, but even the development of the internet! It is a metaphor for a world where people increasingly refuse to define their identity by “where they are from”, by their nationality and ethnicity.

Asni is a citizen of that world. Born in what was then West Berlin at the height of the Cold War, she found refuge from dreary surroundings and very real fears in Tolkien’s writings. They are what gave her the idea to learn harp in the first place! Her collection of instruments would not look out of place among Dwarves, Elves or Gondorians. She has travelled three continents as a virtuoso harp player of international reputation. Her fresh approach is gaining new audiences for an instrument that tends to live on the fringes of contemporary music culture.

Five years ago, Asni took up the New Zealand government on its offer to give her residency on the strength of her artistic reputation, and settled down in Wellington. Although adapting to a new and very different artistic environment has been by no means easy - an environment where the question “Where are you from” sometimes seems more important than “What do you do and how good are you at it?” - she has never looked back.

*Travels in Middle-earth* is Asni’s third CD production and the first produced in New Zealand. The idea for the album grew out of her performance at the Return of the Ringers fan party on the eve of the Return of the King premiere in 2003. John Howe, renowned Tolkien artist and conceptual designer for the Lord of the Rings movies, was so impressed with Asni’s first solo album 700 Years of Pop that he offered the use of one of his illustrations for the cover of the new CD. The project has had enthusiastic support from the fan community.

Never one to conform to role expectations, Asni has left her origins in classical music behind and has created her own contemporary style. She draws on a profound knowledge of musical traditions, and has worked with a wide range of musicians, from alternative pop to traditional Maori music. She was fortunate to collaborate with Alistair Fraser, who plays his taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments) on several tracks of her new CD. A powerful combination of sounds and ancient musical traditions!

Music plays an important part in Tolkien’s fictional universe - but what did it sound like? - Not content with just adapting a few songs from Howard Shore’s film soundtrack, Asni took inspiration from the same sources that spurred Tolkien’s imagination: The album combines Medieval songs, dance music not only from Ireland and Scotland, but from Finland and neighbouring Estonia, and even from as far afield as Spain and Western Africa, as well as original tunes inspired by texts from Tolkien’s book.

Asni realized the opportunities the internet offered for independent musicians quite early on. In 2002 she took a weekend class and built a website in a text editor: www.asni.net now attracts some 500 visitors every day. Asni has built an international following through the net and was able to raise the funds for producing her new CD through pre-sales to fans in twelve different countries. New Zealanders at large have yet to discover Asni and her way out of the ordinary music.

More information: please visit www.asni.net

QUOTES

“To me, the whole point of engaging with music that has been buried by time is to eventually create something new.”

“Often, particularly with very old music, there is so little knowledge left that there are vast spaces to be filled by the imagination. It is a play with possibilities, all of them equally valid, rather than an attempt to arrive at one “correct” version of a tune.”

“One thing we do know – people played harp an awful lot in Middle-earth”