Kalimbas to Marimbas with Michael Askill, Greg Sheehan

When Taal Naan was in Byron Bay recently to work with Michael and Greg, we did a lot of improvising. One piece that came out of this was the one performed in the following video, filmed at the Byron Community Theatre. It is performed on a pair of kalimbas looped and processed through Ableton Live, followed by an improvisation for four players on one marimba, loosely based around the many different ways that we could play a Greg Sheehan number 'triangle' -

7 7 7 7
6 6 6
5 5
4

Taal Naan with Michael Askill, Greg Sheehan - Kalimbas to Marimbas from taalnaan on Vimeo.

One from the Archive: Taal Naan and special guests with Fritz Hauser

In July, 2008, we were lucky enough in Perth to host the master percussionist/soundmaker Fritz Hauser. Together with our great perth buddies Louise Conroy and Daniel Susnjar, we put on a show that had a loose form (in 5 parts), but was on the whole improvised. The result was a resounding sound and a resounding success, thanks in no small way to Fritz's amazing ability to draw our audience into the sounds he was making.

The show was called 'insert space here...', and was performed at the WA Academy of Performing Arts Round Theatre, 21/7/08. Editing/Postproduction was by Derek Ho, filming was by Derek Ho / Dirty Stylus productions.

Below is a little showreel of some of the highlights from the performance (remember you can hit the 'HD' button and go to vimeo to watch it in HD if you have the bandwidth)

We hope to eventually post a full video of the whole performance.


Taal Naan and friends with Fritz Hauser from taalnaan on Vimeo.

'Laura' - with Greg Sheehan

One of our most favourite instruments is the Hang drum - you just need to listen to our Rhythmbred CD to hear that it has a big influence on our 'sound world'. Greg Sheehan, with whom we worked with over two weeks in July 09 in Byron Bay, has a beautiful Hang drum that is tuned to a C minor scale. He has written a number of tunes for this instrument, one of them being 'Laura', named in honor of his partner.

Below is a video of us performing this tune with him in a performance at the Byron Community Theatre at the end of our two weeks with both Greg and Michael Askill, another legendary Australian percussionist. It has an improvised middle section - in this version I play a marimba (a tuned wooden percussion instrument) and Steve plays an Udu, which is basically a clay pot which has a range of lovely tones, including a deep bass 'boom'. Don't forget that you can watch the whole thing in HD if you follow the link in the video to vimeo, or watch the smaller, faster version here. Enjoy.

'Laura' - Taal Naan with Greg Sheehan play Greg Sheehan.... from taalnaan on Vimeo.

Body Percussion with Greg Sheehan

Another one of our favourite ways to make percussion music is using body percussion. Greg Sheehan is a bit of a pioneer when it comes to the use of this kind of music in teaching and performing, and we hope to have some lessons up on the site soon where you yourself can start working on your claps, mouth pops chest slaps and 7-7-2 number diamonds! (some of the things we are using in the following piece). For now - check out the video below as a great example of how it can be used in a challenging and fun way.

We were lucky enough to work with Greg in Byron Bay for a couple of weeks in July 09, and Greg came up with this piece for us to do quite quickly once he had shown us the basic moves. Enjoy! (n.b. if you have the bandwidth and want to watch the video in HD click on the "HD is off" button and you can go to the vimeo website to watch the HD version)

Taal Naan with Greg Sheehan, Body Percussion Jam from taalnaan on Vimeo.

'You and Me' (arr.) video, Rhythmbred CD Launch Jul 09

One of our favourite things is making music without any (large & heavy) instruments. Konnakol (or South Indian Vocal Percussion) is a great way to make percussion music. Here's a little demo of Steve and I doing my own arrangement of the Selvaganesh tune, "You and Me" from our recent CD Launch at Kulcha.

Taal Naan perform 'You and Me' (arr.), Rhythmbred CD Launch, Jul 2009 from taalnaan on Vimeo.

Rhythmbred featured on Radio National's 'Weekend Planet'

Taal Naan's new album is being featured by Doug Spencer on this saturday's (Aug 22) edition of the weekend planet at 10pm. See this page for a pre-show playlist, and to listen to the podcast after the broadcast. It looks like they are playing just about all the tracks and getting their full value out of our new release. We're really proud to be featured on this show which is an Australian world/folk music institution... Doug Spencer says of the album:

'Taal Naan's debut album Rhythm Bred offers delicious/excruciating puns...and much more. Primarily percussive, inventive and globally-inclined, Josh Hogan and Steve Richter are a playful Australian duo whose vast instrumental array includes the studio itself.'

Taal Naan on Radio National

New Labels

This is the blog post where I create some of the new online lesson labels...