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Month: April 2017

Active volcanoes, all: Tongariro, Ngauruhoe (aka “Mt Doom”), Ruapehu

The shortest of the “big three” that dominate the central plateau on New Zealand’s North Island is Tongariro.  The more “perfect” Ngauruhoe deserves an Academy Award – not just for its role as “Mt Doom” in The Lord of the Rings,  but for so convincingly presenting itself as an independent entity, when it is in fact Tongariro’s “parasitic”, secondary cone. Ruapehu is the North Island’s highest peak and only currently glaciated mountain.

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Music review: Iris Dement, Elina Duni

Over the last year no “female vocal” albums have moved me more deeply. In their different ways, each defies description, and is a very “unlikely” success. Respectively, they were recorded in the singer’s living room in Iowa, and in a studio in south-east France. Iris Dement interprets Russian poetry, in a manner no one else would ever have attempted… or imagined.  Elina Duni addresses poetry and traditional song from her birthplace, Albania…with three brilliant Swiss jazzmen.

 

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