BIOGRAPHY
RECENT FESTIVALS
Recent festival performances include: Fusion Festival Berlin DE, La Fete de La Musique FR, an extensive 22 date tour of Aotearoa/New Zealand with Arts on Tour NZ, Wanaka Festival of Colours, The Famous Spiegeltent AK09, Titirangi Festival of Music, Cuba Street Carnival, Luminate, Organic River Festival, Nelson Arts Festival, Littleweed Festival, Bay of Islands Arts Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival (Garden of Unearthly Delights) AUS, Imst Festival AUSTRIA, Hamilton Gardens Summer Festival, Jambalaya, Prana, First Light AK, Tauranga Arts Festival, Palmerston North Culture Festival, Christchurch Arts Festival, Taranaki Arts Festival, AK07, WOMAD NZ 2007, Waiheke Culture Festival, and Nectar to name a few…
RECENT REVIEWS
SOCO CARGO Garden Of Unearthly Delights, Adelaide – 23rd Feb 08The weather may have been a little cooler than usual for this time of year, but the temperature in SoCo Cargo certainly heated up when New Zealand’s The Mamaku Project took to the stage! This five-piece band put on a very impressive show, weaving a dense musical web of sounds including sultry and moody dub, mixed with quintessentially French and bohemian melodies, and even enchanting elements of the east. The band has really embraced the carnival atmosphere too, with their show giving off a very theatrical exuberance, complete with costumes and sideshow performance. Fat basslines and groovy horns set the pace, and the band’s jazz-meets-dub style is certainly a winner with this punter. Can’t wait ‘til they return!
Luke Balzan - RIP IT UP n971 (Australia)
SOCO CARGO Garden Of Unearthly Delights, Adelaide – 21st Feb 08Looking like shipwrecked musical vagabonds washed up on the shore, The Mamaku Project filled SoCo Cargo with an unusual mix of sights and sounds. Five top-hatted New Zealand performers in boho seafaring garb, they entertained a small but appreciative audience with songs that revealed a broad range of influences, including French cabaret and gypsy music, and sounds of the Pacific and Middle East. Their sole female member and charismatic lead singer gave brief explanations of the story-based songs, well-supported by her colleagues on keyboards, drums, guitar and saxophone. Driving rhythms with percussive interludes and some theatricality would see the group slot nicely in to WomAdelaide.
Louise Nunn – THE ADVERTISER, Adelaide
Hamilton Gardens Festival, New Zealand– 17th Feb 2008The Mamaku Project’s sound was unique as they blended Eastern European influences with French and those of Pacifica; a place where the musical styles and cultures merged. Their integrated blend included typical jazz solo breaks and an eclectic mix of rhythms that challenged the feet to stay still with a hypnotic vocal presence. Their music began to inhabit a unique form, from there it mutated with free spirit as a natural consequence of events into a new habitat; their music was the uncharted journey where one became totally intoxicated with the plethora of little solos in a variety of styles. Nomad could not be faltered with its sensuous melodies. Loved the show!
Andrew Buchanan-Smart - WAIKATO TIMES
WOMAD NZ 2007“…Over on the tiny Dell Stage, the organisers have underestimated the popularity of New Zealand act the Mamaku Project. Punters are climbing trees, clambering up banks and using the toilet steps as a grandstand to get a peek at the rootsy dub act, with a French twist…”
Scott Kara – NZ HERALD
EARLIER…
The Mamaku Project’s 05/06 season graced lush Aotearoa Festivals such as Kaikoura Roots, Splore, Hamilton Gardens Summer Festival, Devonport Food & Wine Festival, Jambalaya and Titirangi Festival of Music.
The core duo Tui Mamaki and Monsieur Escargot performed together for the first time at Errobiko Festibala in Pays Basque, France 2004. This event was the beginning of a co-creative adventure leading them back through India to AOTEAROA/NZ. Now a humming collective of local talent joins them to bring the compositions to the stage.Check out www.myspace.com/themamakuproject for more…