Chris Mason-Battley Group
Biography Chris Mason-Battley Group
The Chris Mason-Battley Group
records and performs music that explores and reflects the open untamed beauty of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Their musical influences include artists such as Pat Metheny, John Schofield, Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek.
Two Tides brings together two distinct musical sensibilities, exploring the similarities and differences of European jazz and Maori instrumentation through improvisation, forging new paths within the ever evolving musical landscape of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Their music has been very well received internationally, with more than one million internet downloads of their material to date. In 2000, they were the most downloaded New Zealand group, and one of the top 25 artists on major international download websites. Their debut, Karakia was a finalist in the Jazz Album category of the 2000 NZ Music Awards, and in 2001 they released their second album. Unspoken was a double disc CD that built on the spacious sound of their first album (disc one) while exploring the new groove-based acid-jazz directions of the time (disc two).
In 2004, one of their songs was included on an American jazz compilation CD along with tracks by artists such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Sarah Vaughan. Their music has appeared in various short films, multimedia projects, and compilation albums. The Chris Mason-Battley Group manage to push the boundaries of jazz while producing music that is attractive, appealing and accessible in the best possible way.
John Psathas
is a composer and Professor of composition at Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music. His music has achieved a level of international success unprecedented in New Zealand history, and his concert works are performed regularly on the international stage by some of the world’s top musicians. These include Dame Evelyn Glennie, Joanna MacGregor, The Halle Orchestra, Michael Brecker, Joshua Redman, Kristjan Jarvi, Sir Mark Elder, Pedro Carneiro, and many others.
Originally of Greek heritage, John is also now widely considered one of the three most important living composers of the Greek Diaspora. He has a natural inclination toward mega-projects. Since writing much of the ceremonial music for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, John’s music has been on the radar of a wider public than that normally associated with contemporary classical music.
John is in extremely high demand as a composer in many genres and media. His musical style brings together the languages of jazz, classical, Eastern European and Middle Eastern, avant-garde, rock, and electronica.
