625 Moons (September 2025)
From Scratch

Throughout September 2024, From Scratch celebrated 50 years of musical activism and experimentation by collaborating with improvisers, composers, musicians, and filmmakers for a series of performances produced by the Audio Foundation in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The collaborative spirit of the 625 Moons celebration is encapsulated in a text by Karl Marx from Das Kapital, which Karl Steven drew upon for his piece Co-operation:

When numerous labourers work together side by side,
whether in one and the same process,
or in different but connected processes,
they are said to co-operate,
or to work in co-operation.

From Scratch are Phil Dadson, Adrian Croucher, Shane Currey, Darryn Harkness & Chris O’Connor.

This LP is a set of extracts from selected live performances, curated & produced by Jeff Henderson.
Recorded at The Audio Foundation, Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa/New Zealand by Sam Longmore & Matthew Gunn.
Edited, mixed & mastered by Jeff Henderson.
Design by Richard Francis.

Produced by Phil Dadson & Jeff Henderson for Audio Foundation Records.

GUEST (May 2025)
vegetable.machine.animal

A live conversation between plants, fungi, machines, and human musicians.

What would it sound like if we could interact musically with plants and fungi—if humans stopped to listen and respond? vegetable.machine.animal is an interspecies improvisational trio exploring this question through a hybrid sonic language of biosignals, modular synthesis, and live drums.

Led by drummer Kieran Monaghan, the project transforms living data from plants and fungi into voltage, translated into sound via modular synthesizer. Monaghan responds in real time, creating a feedback loop between human, organism, and machine.

Their debut album, GUEST, was recorded during the 2024 Sonic Artist Residency (Creative New Zealand / NZSM / Toi Pōneke) and emerged through open-ended, intuitive sessions. A diverse group of collaborators was invited to join the process, including Kedron Parker, Nico Buhne, Bill Wood, Ruby Solly, Indigique Brown, David Long, Andrew Faleatua, Andy Wright, Gemma Thompson, Timothy Morel, Mo H. Zareei, Tae Kyung Seo, Issac Smith, and Chrissie Butler.

Rather than guiding the music, contributors were invited to follow it—adding their voices to a living, shifting ecology of sound. The result is an album that is rhythmic, irregular, immersive, and alive.

GUEST is co-released by Audio Foundation Records (Tāmaki Makaurau) and skirted Records (Te Whanganui-a-Tara).

Tūpiki (December 2024)
Riki Pirihi & Abigail Aroha Jensen

Tūpiki was recorded at Audio Foundation during the autumn recording residency in 2023.

The conceptual framework for the album is inspired by the journey Maui took to climb the 12 stairs of heaven, Te Ara Poutama. Each track covers a realm which Maui climbs to retrieve the baskets of knowledge. Each track is dubbed in three, and each track plays out to 3.33.

During its recording, the album was divided into four parts dictated by certain realms of the soul – Puku, Manawa, Korokoro and Ūpoko. These realms anchored a method of playing for both Riki and Abigail, introducing a connecting point in the philosophy of hauora and sound associated with The Four Doors of Oro.
Abigail had been researching this concept through the late Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan. Riki suggested they integrate the four doors into the 12 steps. Matt the sound wizard set up our booth, they recorded and layered each track in threes and thus, Tūpiki was born.

Each track is a musical interpretation within a realm, behind a door and in an upward motion. Tūpiki captures a moment in time where three people meet to climb the heavenly realms together.

Tūpiki.
Tūpiki ake ki te wāhi ngaro. Tūpiki ake ki te rangi tūhāhā. Tūpiki ake ki Mātangireia.
Tū te winiwini, tū te wanawana.
Tū pīki, tū meke, tū much.
Karanga te pō, karanga te ao.
Koropupū te repo.
Tamumu te rau.
Wawara te ngārara.
Tioriori te kāhui manu.
He tipua, he taniwha. He aituā, he atua.
Karanga mai, tangi mai, mihi mai rā.
Tūmuckenfuch
– Mokotron

I know……a…way…(July 2024)
Ducklingmonster

‘I know….a….way’ is the first solo LP by Ducklingmonster aka Beth Dawson. Created during her 2023 Winter Residency at Tāmaki Makaurau’s Audio Foundation, ‘I know….a….way’ weaves a disembodied playfulness – building its own environments through the materiality of creation.

Utilising a combination of scratched 45 records, broken beats emanating from a JVC boombox, field recordings of crashing oceans and Karangahape footpaths, electronic and vocal textures laid into walls of sonics – ‘I know….a….way’ revels in the forgotten, neglected and overlooked. This collage of damaged sounds shines a light on lost passages of real time and space.

Ducklingmonster/Beth Dawson is a leading figure in the vibrant experimental arts scene in Aotearoa. Her work crosses many media, cities, and decades, and has made an indelible impression on the sound and shape of Aotearoa’s experimental music history.

Day Breathes Night (August 2023)
by Phil Dadson, Simon Allen, Rachel Shearer, Hermione Johnson

Outlier Festival 2022: New Electronic Music From Aotearoa (October, 2022)
by Various Artists

The Audio Foundation is thrilled to announce the launch of a new record label. Audio Foundation Records (AFR) will be a platform for releasing sounds and music associated with the plethora of programmes the organisation produces.

The first release is a 17-track compilation as part of the multimodal project Outlier Festival, Outlier Festival 2022: New Electronic Music from Aotearoa showcases artists associated with the upcoming Outlier Festival on 07 – 09 October, helping provide newcomers with an accessible entry point for the genre-straddling festival of bleeding-edge sonics from throughout Aotearoa. The immersive first two tracks on the compilation have been revealed — ‘Yoga For Losers’ by Ex-Partner and ‘Everything’s Perpetual’ by Te Papaioea’s Synthetic Children

A place to play a clarinet (November 2023)
by J.A Kennedy Exhibition performed by Jeff Henderson and Sean Martin-Buss

Transposed, an apparition of an appearance, a record of two clarinets played by Jeff Henderson and Sean Martin-Buss. The performance took place on August 14, 2022, from approximately 16:50 to 18:30 hrs, within the Governor Brick Pumphouse —a green box– located at 1A Tuarangi Road, Grey Lynn, Tāmaki Makaurau. With a modest area of 33 sqm, the pumphouse, stripped of its original purpose of water pressure provision, prompt us to reflect on its past while posing the question, “What’s next?” Amidst this site of transition, marked by undefined potential, a pair of transposing woodwind instruments —a clarinet duo— pose a new occurrence. On that afternoon, in an attempt to contribute to the pumphouse’s ontological narrative, the players were guided by the presence of two chairs. Each chair served as sculptural notation or a seat for the musicians. The resulting sounds embraced chance and allowed for unpredictable outcomes. Intuitive communication, formed by the moment, develops into a lexical space. As friendly experiencers, where will we position ourselves to observe two players, two clarinets, and two seats for approximately 45 minutes? By documenting this specific moment, moving from one occurrence to the next, perhaps retracing our steps, we aim to ameliorate the ambiguity surrounding the pumphouse. Sound resonates within four walls —a place to play a clarinet. Outside, the wind blows steadily and the rain persists. From the confines of a green box, descending the stairs, and now within the walls of the Audio Foundation Gallery, on to wherever your discretion takes you.

These parts —CD and chapbook— are components that embody the occurrence of a previous moment in time, transposing the sound of wind from one place to another.

Particular acknowledgment is due to Jeff Henderson and Sean Martin-Buss, whose improvised contributions made this inquiry into transposition possible. Thank you Camron and Gavin for facilitating the use of 1A Tuarangi Road while it was under offer, and to John at Pocket Bar for providing electrical power to 1A on the 14th August 2022. Audio Foundation, my sincerest thanks. Your trust in process has aided in an ability to return to fleeting sounds from that afternoon/evening, sounds that would have otherwise blown away in the unrelenting Force 4 winds.

Western Line (November 2023)
by David Cowlard & Andrew Moon / RST

Western Line is an audio-visual installation which ran through Sept – Oct 2023 at the Audio Foundation.

The audio recordings used in the show, comprised of environmental field recordings, interwoven with experimental guitar based improvisations, are presented here in digital form and limited cassette (Movements 1 and 2).

Two additional pieces created for the project are also made available and included in the digital download.

Western Line:
A city symphony by David Cowlard and Andrew Moon/RST

The Western Line is the railway line that runs from the city centre of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to the outer suburb of Swanson, and back again.

Thousands of people ride the railway on their daily commute. A journey by train allows for a unique experience of the city. Architecture is seen in part, often at speed. The railway cuts through closely packed urban housing, light industry, suburban homes and out into the greener rural landscapes. Graffiti merges with street signs and billboards, and rail passengers view this flickering landscape while thinking of other things, other images.
Western Line expands this fragmented terrain and explores the aural and visual moments where the railway intersects the urban fabric. City and soundscape are interwoven to match the situational experience from the window of the train while also responding to the rhythms of daily life.

David Cowlard is a filmmaker, photographer and sound artist. His interdisciplinary practice explores new approaches to architectural representation and includes work across a number of media including short-form video, photography and urban field recording. He has a particular interest in exploring how moving image and sound can inform a wider critical engagement with architecture and the built environment. His video and audio work has been featured in galleries in Auckland and internationally and has featured in film festivals and screenings.
David is Programme Leader for Photo Media at Whitecliffe and is the co-director of PhotoForum NZ.

Andrew Moon / RST is an experimental musician and recording artist.