‘Final Whistle’ – New Single for NZ Music Month

Whanganui musician and composer Elizabeth de Vegt has worked with local musicians to record Final Whistle a song based on a poem of the same name by Airini Beautrais’ from her 2017 Ockham longlisted poetry collection Flow.

The new single was recorded at The Stomach in Palmerston North by de Vegt and her band The Flow Collective which includes Hamish Jellyman, Andrew Wetherall, Brad McMillan and Elise Goodge, a taonga puoro specialist.

Final Whistle was written in 2021 as part of the larger project Flow: Beautrais x de Vegt, an album inspired by Beautrais’ poetry collection Flow. At the time of recording the album the Final Whistle composition was incomplete and therefore not included. It was subsequently premiered at the album release concert in March 2022 and finally recorded late in 2022.

The single Final Whistle is being released to coincide with New Zealand Music Month. “Airini’s poem represents the pain of shared experiences coming to an end.” Elizabeth reflects “It is a way of life suddenly becoming a memory, I related to the subject matter because of the changes the pandemic forced upon all artists and the impact of those changes on our industry.”

The single has been released with a complimentary music video documenting the recording process. The single is available on Spotify for streaming and download. The video can be viewed on YouTube under The Flow Collective.

Elizabeth de Vegt and The Flow Collective are currently touring the complete show Flow: Beautrais x de Vegt, including the new single, to towns throughout Aotearoa. Follow them on social media to see where they will be performing next.

The album Flow was released by Wellington label, Oro Records on Saturday 5 March 2022.