The Cloud Maker is an Australian, all-star female quintet celebrating goddesses and channeling ancient tales of fierce battles, shaman dances, journeys to the afterlife, and a moth goddess singing into the most beautiful, healing song – or spell – of all time. The diverse musicians’ cultures are woven together magically through sound and performance, as The Cloud Maker collective remembers ancient bloodlines and breathes new life into old stories.
The Cloud Maker features Māori vocalist-omposer-multi-disciplinary artist-writer Te Kahureremoa Taumata, who also plays on the Māori traditional Taonga Pūoro; Australian clarinetist Avaiva Endean, who also plays on harmonic flute, prepared piano and electronics; Australian-Danish cellist Freya Schack-Arnott, who also plays the Swedish traditional nyckelharpa, Korean, Australia-based vocalist Sunny Kim, who also plays the traditional Korean gong, Kkwaenggwari, kalimba; and Australian drummer Maria Moles.
The Cloud Maker was born in a wooden hut on the snowy peaks of Canada, where Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Sunny Kim, and Aviva Endean met on a residency at The Banff Centre in 2019. There Te Kahureremoa shared the story of the Māori moth goddess Raukatauri, the creation story of the Putorino, a cocoon-shaped flute, and just one of the Taonga Pūoro she plays. Each figure in the story was accompanied by its own unique sound on the flute.
When the musicians returned to Australia they gathered up a group of masterful musicians and began to imagine a wealth of music they could based on ancient goddesses like Mayari, the Filipino goddess of the moon, Freya, the Norse Goddess of love, fertility, battle, and death, Princess Bari who is worshipped by Korean shamans and is told to have resurrected her parents with the water of life, Miriam, the Jewish prophetess who inspired women into song and dance after crossing the red sea, and who carried a miraculous well as they wandered through the desert, The Selkies, mythological Irish creatures who can transform between a seal and human form, and Hine Pu Te Hue, the goddess of the gourd who swallows the storm.
The self-titled, debut album of The Cloud Maker was created «on unceded Wurundjeri (the Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of Melbourne) land», and recorded at Sydney Road Studios.
Its thirteen, timeless, and inspired songs sound like sacred rituals and mystical dances that were imagined in a secret meeting of the ancient goddesses. These songs transform the archetypal stories and cast powerful, emotional chants and purifying spells for the healing of our wounded globe and empowering feminine voices. The listening experience to this most beautiful, touching album has an immediate, powerful, and emotional impact. You can sense how the ancient feminine vibrations and voices can brighten even the darkest days, swallow the coming, threatening storms, and suggest a better, more peaceful, and compassionate vision.
Eyal Hareuveni
Te Kahureremoa Taumata (Taonga Pūoro, voice), Aviva Endean (bass clarinet, harmonic flute, prepared piano, electronics), Sunny Kim (voice, kkwaenggwari, kalimba, prepared piano), Freya Schack-Arnott (cello, nyckelharpa), Maria Moles (drums, prepared piano), Justin Marshall (electric bass), Chloë Sobek (double bass)
