MĀRAMA (Film) with Karl Sölve Steven d. Taratoa Stappard (tbc)
BLACK COAST VANISHINGS (TV Series) with Karl Sölve Steven d. Megan Jones and Candida Beveridge (2023)
TAUMANU (RECLAIM) (Episode) with Karl Sölve Steven d. Taratoa Stappard (2022)
SUPER SPECIAL (Short Film) d. Ashley Williams (2019)
Māori composer, performer, improvisor, collaborator, anthropologist and specialist Rob Thorne M.A. (Ngāti Tumutumu, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Raukawa, Tainui Hauraki) is a diverse and original explorer in the evolving journey of taonga pūoro and has been at the forefront of its revival and renaissance.
Blending tradition with innovation, Rob Thorne’s work crosses orchestral, electronic, jazz, and free improvisation, leading to solo and collaborative performances around the world. Continuing to push sonic and cultural boundaries, Rob’s performances offer a transcendent aural experience, deeply rooted in heritage yet strikingly contemporary.
His groundbreaking 2014 debut album Whāia te Māramatanga (Rattle Records) is a beautiful, sparse set of solo performances of taonga pūoro, creating a musical passage of identity & connection. It was hailed for “successfully reimagining and reconstructing traditional Māori instrumental music for the 21st century” (NZ Musician), and was nominated for Best Traditional Album at the Waiata Maori Music Awards, and received a nomination in the Taite Music Prize. This album marked the start of a prolific career spanning six albums in ten years.
Rob has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including electronic composer Fis (Oliver Peryman), juxtaposing Rob’s living, breathing practice with the weight of modern sound system. They released Clear Stones (2017) on UK label Subtext, and Ngā Parirau o te Kārearea (2017) on Perryman’s own label Saplings. This collaboration saw them perform around the world, including London’s experimental institution Cafe OTO, Borderline Festival in Greece and CTM/Transmediale Festival in Berlin.
His work with Greek pianist and composer Tania Giannouli was a profound exploration of cross-cultural improvisation and sonic storytelling. Their collaboration began in 2017 in Athens, where they met for the first time and recorded over two days without any prior preparation. This spontaneous session, resulted in a unique musical dialogue that merged the ancient musical traditions of Greece and Aotearoa, into a deeply atmospheric and meditative soundscape, these recordings were released as the album Rewa (Rattle Records 2018).
In 2019, Rob Thorne, Anna Fält & David Rothenberg, came together during their time in Womex in Finland, and created a recording that melded Fält’s vocals, Rothenberg’s clarinet and overtone flute, with Thorne’s taonga pūoro, this collaboration was later released as Faultlines (Rattle Records 2021). This experimentalism can also be heard in his collaboration in 2023 with Phil Dadson, where they recorded their improvisations between Dadson’s multi-voiced bespoke instrument called the “gloop”, and taonga pūoro, creating their album Aurongo ~ Inner Listening (Rattle Records).
Rob has also explored the synergies between his practice and western string instruments through his collaborations with the New Zealand String Quartet performing Te Ao Hou – ‘This New World’ at the NZ Festival in 2018, and premiering Tomokanga, a ten minute piece for pukaea, putorino, putatara and string quartet. In 2023 he performed Force of Nature with the NZ Trio at the Auckland Arts Festival, paying homage to 100 years of Forest & Bird.
Rob has collaborated with film composer Karl Sölve Steven on various projects, beginning with creating the score for Taumanu (Reclaim) directed by Taratoa Stappard, which was part of the Beyond the Veil Series in 2022. This partnership continued with them creating the score in 2023 for Black Coast Vanishings, a series about the disappearance of six people from the Piha area, directed by Megan Jones and Candida Beveridge. Their work was nominated for Best Original Score in the NZ TV Awards, and won the APRA Silver Scroll for Best Original Music in a Series (2024). Recently they composed the score for feature film 'Mārama' directed by Taratoa Stappard, which will be released in 2025.
Working within the multimedia space, Rob has created a wide range of sound works, including a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon creating Earth Mother, Father Sky (2021), a dual-channel work, exploring themes of nature and the environment, which premiered at ISSUE Project Room (NYC) and was later shown at STUK (Leuven) and Phoenix Art Museum.
His journey of identity has seen him travel internationally to research museum collections, teach and lecture, present as keynote, demonstrate, collaborate and perform, working academically and musically with both traditional and sonic masters including Richard Nunns and Phil Dadson. His Post Graduate Diploma research became a museum exhibition 'Kōauau: The Music Within', which successfully toured New Zealand regionally for 5 years and awoke many to the natural ease with which the instruments can be made and played.