Projects

Tutakitaki

Tutakitaki is an album containing nine original tracks that blend popular indigenous Brazilian music with traditional and contemporary Māori music.

Brazil & Aotearoa New Zealand

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Performing at Te Papa. Image: Facebook @Tutakitaki

Tutakitaki is an album containing nine original tracks that are performed by Māori singer and songwriter Matiu Te Huki (New Zealand) and three Brazilian performers: singer and songwriter Alda Rezende, percussionist and composer Caíto Marcondes, and singer and guitarist Kristoff Silva. The album results from an experimental music project that the musicians worked on over the course of one year.

Matiu has performed with many of New Zealand’s top artists, including Fat Freddy’s Drop, Tiki Taane and Anika Moa. His music uses haka, chants and traditional Māori instruments. Alda has made a significant contribution to promoting Latin American culture in New Zealand, including founding the Live Brazil festival in Wellington. She has released several of her own albums and performed with many other musicians at the main festivals and events in New Zealand. Caíto has played with many of Brazil’s best musicians, including Hermeto Pascoal, Naná Vasconcelos and Aírto Moreira. As well as being a percussionist, he has composed music for ballet, films and documentaries. And Kristoff has produced solo albums and been involved in many compilations of Brazilian music.

Kristoff’s work focuses on the relationship between sounds and words; he was drawn to this project by the similar sounds of Māori and Tupi (an indigenous Brazilian language) words. In te reo Māori, tutakitaki means to meet, encounter or contact. The album Tutakitaki enables listeners to encounter the cultures, sounds and instruments of New Zealand and Brazil, through indigenous Brazilian languages, English, Portuguese and te reo Māori.

After releasing the album in 2015, the group toured New Zealand, playing at venues in Wellington, Masterton and Auckland.

Tutakitaki was produced by Alda Rezende with support from the Embassy of Brazil, Māori Tourism, Air New Zealand, CREATIVA Design Studio and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.

Published 02 November 2023