Master of Arts, Music

Carol Storey is a composer, singer, guitarist and Māori educator based in The Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand. Although she has made her name solely as a singer, 2007 sees the release of her debut album Mokomoko a collection of songs written over the last three years.

The ten track album, a significant Pacific addition to world music is in Te Reo (Māori language) and is steeped in the narratives of her tribal homeland, Opotiki and the tikanga of her iwi (tribe) Te Whakatohea.

The Mokomoko collection provided the basis for her Master's thesis. Her dissertation investigated the strategies and critical methods used by traditional and contemporary Māori composers in the development of waiata. Then by using those compositional values and strategies she produced her own collection of contemporary waiata. In particular she researched contemporary Māori women composers including Whirimako Black, Hinewehi Mohi and Moana Maniapoto.

Mokomoko is a tribute to her tipuna Mokomoko, her great great grand father who was wrongfully executed by the Crown 17 May 1866, exhumed from Mt Eden prison and taken home to Makeo at Opotiki in 1989. The Mokomoko whanau received a pardon from the crown in 1992.

Carol engaged the services of Mike McCarthy (Manuka Studio, Orewa) to assist with the CD recording and production. Mike is an experienced music producer from South Africa. He has expertise in the field of recording the voices of South Africa's indigenous people.

The recordings involve layering of vocal harmonies by the composer/artist Carol Storey; classical, folk and electric guitar instrumentations; Taonga Puoro embellishments; sampled drum and bass rhythms. This Masters Project includes a booklet containing: lyrics in Te Reo with English translation; an explanation of the story behind each song; photographic images; original artworks.

The artist has also engaged the services of Melissa Gibbard a Masters Student of photography to capture images to support the project.

Three singles from the album have received airplay on Iwi and National radio and have been listed on 3 recent Iwi Hit discs. The album was recorded and produced at Manuka Studios, Orewa and will be released in the autumn of 2007 on Torch Records through Tirama Productions.