College hall becomes recording studio

Ruapehu Bulletin, 17 August 1990, Page 9

College hall becomes recording studio

South Pacific Recordings Ltd were in Ohakune on Monday and Tuesday to put on record sixteen songs from the Ruapehu College cultural group. Keith Southern, managing director of the company, brought a mobile studio to the college and 35 college students and musicians spent one and a half days recording the songs which are a mixture of Maori, English, Tokelauan and Japanese languages. "The recording went very smoothly", teacher Merrilyn George said, "and not many retakes were required. However it was strenuous work with considerable concentration being necessary during the two days." Although there are regularly 75 students in the college cultural group which practices once a week, only half that number were in-

volved in the recording because of the commitment to practice required out of school time.

Keith Southern was impressed with the discipline of the students and said it was a pleasure

to work with them and with musical arranger Vera Wilson and her team of musicians.

Backing the choral renditions were Judy Knight, piano, Aurora Mareikura and Valanique-

Wilson on bass guitar, Matthew Mareikura on the drums and Vera Wilson, acoustic guitar.

It is hoped the tape recording will be ready for release late September and it is planned to have a pre-release special price available soon so that community members can order copies.