ANTHONY COPPING

Last Voices

Siva Pacifica

The Mana, or calling, is found in some form amongst all Pacific people. It is a spiritual call for humans, ancestors and all animals on earth to bond in friendship, a call to our ancestral spirits for guidance and protection. To underline its spiritual importance, the track features singers from every location Copping visited throughout the project.

Sung in the ꞌAreꞌare language, this chant connects with ancestral spirits, calling on them for power and guidance on perilous expeditions. It was recorded on Copping’s first expedition to the Solomon Islands in a Government building provided by the country’s prime minister Solomon Mamaloni. During mixing, Copping added ambience and voices from the `Are`are province.

A celebration of freedom, happiness and beauty in the Pacific, performed in multiple Polynesian languages. It features young children from different villages, naturally skilled linguists who quickly learnt to sing in other languages. The track ends with a description of spiritual connection, spoken by Chief Tahuniwapu from the remote village of Koropua, Solomon Islands.

The song represents family, the enduring foundation of everything that is the Pacific. A tribal elder from the Solomon Islands sings a lullaby, and a young girl pleads with her brother to wake up and help with village work. 12-year-old Melynda from the Cook Islands recorded the song in a hotel room. Nose flute and drums are mixed with ambience from the mountains of Rarotonga.

This second part of the Mana piece starts and ends with a conch calling the ancestors of the sea. It features chants from the people of Guadalcanal, Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands arranged by the legendary singer Tepaove Raiti.

A traditional Tahitian song about romance and the power of love. The track features a recording made in Tahiti by the composer and explorer David Fanshawe augmented with ambience, drums, percussion and a counter melody.

A Hawaiian farewell song from the 19th century written by Lili`uokalani, the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. Added to it is a traditional Samoan song, performed by Kelvin Vaega and Robyn Loau.

A sound collage – polyrhythmic log drums recorded on multiple Pacific islands combined with the Haere Mai, a Maori expression of welcome. The powerful track involved the complex piecing together of live log drum performances recorded by numerous drummers across many different countries.

A traditional love song which uses a 1978 recording made by David Fanshawe in Tonga, embellished with a countermelody and ambience. As the performers sing about a lost sweetheart, the sound of kava preparation can be heard in the background.

The migration of the Pacific people across the ocean to populate each island in turn. Black Brothers perform the travellers’ canoe chants, the choir are those left behind, while the sorcerer calls for support and guidance from the gods. The rowers of Aitutaki were recorded for ambience and the sound of movement through water.

Pascal heralds the great feasts and ceremonies of his homeland, singing three different versions of this chant. Ceremonial chants from the small Vanuatu island of Tanna were recorded by hanging microphones from trees while the villagers performed a circle dance.

The song is built upon rhythm and chant from Santa Isabel Island. The chant, recorded with singers stamping their feet adorned with nuts, inspired the rest of the song. It is about balance, nature and respect for the land.

The Marquesan ‘Dance of the Pig’ is renowned throughout the Pacific, a ceremonial dance for the pig demi-god Makaiaanui who is said to have sacrificed himself for the people during a time of famine. The track was recorded on the islands of Santa Isabel and Malaita.

This lament to the devil, a liaison with the spiritual world, was captured inside a Banyan tree. It tells of the devil’s obsession with a young native girl in traditional dress, and the spirit’s grief for its dislocation from the physical world.