Harakeke for solo flute (excerpt) by Philip Brownlee, performed by Mark Takeshi McGregor. Available on the album "Lutalica" on Redshift Records. Download the Lutalica album for free at: redshiftrecords.org/releases/tk468/

Composer and sound artist Philip Brownlee is based in Wellington, New Zealand (Te Whanganui- a-Tara). While his recent work has focussed on improvisation, flexible musical notation, and collaborations with performers of traditional Māori music, the score for his 1999 solo flute piece, Harakeke, calls to mind the complexity works of Brian Ferneyhough. Inspired by the New Zealand flax plant (known also by its Māori word, “harakeke”), this work suggests flickering, swaying movement, and dry, rustling sounds — all set in motion by the agency of air, of wind, and, in this case, of human breath. Commissioned by flutist Bridget Douglas, the piece exploits the often unstable relationship between the flute as an acoustical system and the human gestures which activate it.

Philip Brownlee: Harakeke (excerpt)

Described as a “mind-blowing” musician of “huge physical energy” (Times Colonist), flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor is one of Canada’s leading interpreters of classical, contemporary, and experimental music. As a soloist, chamber musician, and interdisciplinary artist, Mark has performed extensively across five continents, including appearances at Vancouver New Music Society, Little Chamber Music Series That Could, Innovations en Concert (Montreal), GroundSwell (Winnipeg), Honolulu Festival, Internationale ADEvantgarde-Festival (Munich), the Melos-Ethos Festival (Bratislava), Núcleo Música Nova’s International Symposium of New Music (Curitiba, Brazil), and the 2017 ISCM World New Music Days (Vancouver). An outspoken advocate of new music, Mark is the principal flute of the Aventa Ensemble in Victoria, flutist of the Vancouver-based Tiresias Duo with pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and flutist of the McGregor-Verdejo Duo with guitarist Adrian Verdejo. McGregor has given many local and world premieres, and considers the commissioning of new works by contemporary composers to be a cornerstone of his work as a musician.