mr sterile Assembly's Page

Dubbed as “one of the most interesting, if hopelessly below-the-pop-culture-radar bands in New Zealand,” the irrepressible two-piece of mr sterile and Chrissie Butler have reeled in the brilliance of a swathe of Aotearoa’s finest musicans and artists.

On the musical front, Jeff Henderson of screaming jazz improv saxophone fame has layered up the weighty melodics, alongside the scattering of gamelan by Nell Thomas (Orchestra of Spheres) and the solid bass grooves of Aaron Lloydd. Dean Hapeta aka Te Kupu, Upper Hutt Posse, has been a key collaborator on the project, recording all the vox, sax and extra sounds as well as contributing his own vox and text. Lyrical collaborations with Wellington poet Maria McMillan have also been woven in.

The gathering of the 11 images for the eleven tracks has been a momentous effort. Eight of the works have been commissioned specifically for Transit. The artists, Andrew Ross, Deborah Barton, James Robinson, Campbell Kneale, Stefan Neville, Kerry-Ann Lee, Jeff Henderson, and Garage Collective, responded as they desired, creating a powerful collection to accompany the songs. Two works are from artists Tao Wells and Roger Morris, who have gifted established works to be tagged to the songs. The eleventh art work is a very special Wayang puppet received as a gifted when the Assembly played in Java on their south east Asia tour in 2007.

The melee has been mixed and mastered by the fine hands of Mike Gibson and the sound is fat, rich, and challenging. This is not lounge music. This is music to shake yourself to, to play loud, and to bask in the musicianship of shape, form and delivery.

In 2011 mr sterile Assembly will tour the exhibition across the country in between tours to Australia in April, and Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines in July.

Transit has been released by skirted Records (NZ), and Tenzenmen (Aus), with the support of Creative New Zealand.