Salmonella Dub & The NZSO - Feel The Seasons Change

In February 2008, Salmonella Dub and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra collaborated for the Feel The Seasons Change tour of New Zealand with shows performed in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Nelson. This tour has now been immortalised through the release of a live album of the same name. 

The Feel The Seasons Change project combined Salmonella Dub’s contemporary music and production values with elements of te reo Maori, the ancient arts of taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments) and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s classical tradition.


The project was graced with 3 very special guests; the superlative voice of acclaimed te reo singer Whirimako Black; the haunting sounds of renowned taonga puoro expert Richard Nunns; and leading electronic musician Paddy Free of Pitch Black all woven together by noted Christchurch arranger and composer Tom Rainey and conducted by Hamish Mckeich. 

Material in the collaboration is largely drawn from Salmonella Dub’s most recent album Heal Me but also features classics from their extensive back catalogue, plus excerpts of tracks from Paddy Free and Richard Nunn's new album Karekare: Te Reo O Te Whenua and orchestral arrangements including new works composed by Tom Rainey. Rainey took a ‘ground-up’ collaborative approach to the arrangements, making the NZSO an integral part of the music to create a unified sound scape, rather than just bolstering the performances as a ‘backing group’.

“This juxtaposition of colonial high culture mixed with the use of taonga puoro [traditional Moari instruments], waiata [song] and dub styles gave the evening a strong sense of unification and radiated warmth throughout the room” – The Christchurch Press

Feel the Seasons Change is more than just a live album; it is an historic document showcasing the coming of age of a distinctive contemporary Aotearoa musical voice. The album boldly melds together the colonial culture of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with the ancient taonga puoro and te reo through the medium of the dub-rock ethics of Salmonella Dub, the ethereal electronica of Paddy Free, interspersed with the magical vocals of Whirimako Black.

The Feel The Seasons Change album captures the live performances from shows at Auckland’s Aotea Centre on the 1st February recorded by Andre Upston of Radio NZ and Sweetjuice studios recording of the Christchurch Town Hall on Feb 8th 2008.