With two vans loaded with PVC pipes, kitchen utensils and other found items crafted into things that sound good, the band From Scratch is hitting the road.
If you were into the protest movement in the 1970s, particularly protesting nuclear action in the Pacific, the band’s signature tune Pacific 3, 2, 1, Zero will take you right back.
While the Auckland-based band in its latest incarnation was last together 20 years ago, Auckland-based Adrian Croucher, Shane Currey, Phil Dadson and Darryn Harkness have got the band back on the road.
They got together back in 2018 for a festival gig that reinvigorated the group and has resulted in this tour around small-town New Zealand with Arts on Tour.
Dadson, who has been in the group since 1974, says one of the highlights of this new tour is the reprising of the Pacific 3, 2, 1, Zero piece.
"A lot of people are excited to hear that again live. It’s very nostalgic," Harkness says.
But this time round they have a new cause — making their audiences more aware of the effects of climate change on New Zealand and the Pacific.
For those who do not know the group, it is also well known for its rather unusual instruments, in particular racks of long white PVC pipes that are struck on the end to make their unique music.
Dadson: "It’s as much visual as it is is oral. To watch the group is a visceral, physical experience as well as a sonic one. It’s got a lot of sculptural elements in the instruments."
The group make their instruments from anything they can find, inventing them, and over the years have created wind, percussion and bowed instruments.
"There is a lot of intrigue from an audience point of view about what we are doing with these things and how we produce the sounds. A lot of our more unique handheld percussion instruments are made or found."
They keep their ears peeled for potential instruments — kitchen utensils or cans — that could sound good.
"We test things. It’s a lot of fun and hard work."
The group and its instruments have gone through a few "permutations" over the years. The PVC pipes were the original instruments and there were Mk I, II and III of those.
"Then there has been various variations of that kind of theme with different instruments, also including some long string instruments, and percussion instruments we called nun drums. A lot of things using quite simple acoustic principles but in fresh ways."
Their shows are a mix of improvised and structured polyrhythmic rhythms involving hocketing, where instruments either take turns playing discrete portions of a single melody, normally at a rapid tempo and in fluid succession, or two instruments play in a call-and-response.
"It takes a lot of time to get that tight. Once it’s tight, it cooks. It has a very physical effect on an audience as well."
Audience members are often surprised to see what is on the tables in front of the musicians on stage, they say.
Harkness: "They will probably get a surprise when they see tables of funny little rectangular bells and artillery shells, bits of funny things, bowls of water, all sorts of things. A lot of it is about using simple acoustic principles in a fresh way."
They also use their voices as an instrument.
Dadson: "We do a little vocal hocketing."
They are all looking forward to heading south and in particular to Stewart Island, where some of them have not been before.
