Fis and Rob Thorne

A decade into his career, Māori musician Rob Thorne turned his back on rock when he was introduced to the taonga pūoro or "singing treasures," ancient instruments carved from wood, stone, gourds, bone, and seashells, that traditionally held a powerful cultural and spiritual significance for the Māori people. Developing a deep fascination with these instruments and their history, he learned to play all of them, becoming an accomplished maestro, an in-demand session player, and even completing a Master's degree in anthropology, writing his thesis on the instruments. Born in the bustling, cosmopolitan city of Palmerston North on New Zealand's North Island, Thorne had a musical upbringing. Learning to sing and play the trumpet, he started busking under the name Man Alone. Moving to nearby Levin, he fell into the free noise and experimental rock scenes, playing guitar in various bands, including the wonderfully named Brickshithouse. One day in 1999, a friend showed him her koauau (bone flute). Able to play it because of his trumpeting background, he became fascinated by the instrument and started to learn as much as he could about it. Discovering a whole universe of instruments including wooden and conch shell trumpets, stone percussion, and objects whirled around the player's head at the end of a cord, he took the plunge and learned to play (and make) them, at the same time putting his research to good use by signing up to earn a Master's degree in anthropology. While studying (which took him ten years), he did not abandon the rock scene altogether, continuing to pay the bills by singing in the garage rock combo Neckstretchers. In the late 2000s he discovered loop-pedal technology and immediately seized upon the idea of combining it with the taonga pūoro to create a unique experimental fusion of ancient and modern. He performed many live demonstrations and was commissioned to write music for theater. Buoyed by the overwhelmingly positive response to his music, he decided to record an album. The result was his acclaimed 2014 debut, Whāia te Māramatanga, which was made up entirely of original compositions. In 2017 he teamed up with fellow New Zealander Fis, known for his dark, experimental electronic soundscapes. The album Clear Stones, recorded in Berlin, saw recordings of Thorne's instruments hyper-amplified, distorted, and sculpted into forbidding new shapes.
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