Suburbaphonics Bus Stop Tour of Te Atatū

Suburbaphonics is an improvising music group based in Te Atatū who create highly original music and performances. The Bus Stop Tour of Te Atatū is a celebration of iconic roadside architecture, the bus stop. Performing a series of live acoustic concerts inside bus stops along main thoroughfares and neighbourhood back streets, bringing a joyful colour and spontaneity to passers-by and a welcoming presence to bus stop users. Music in bus stops instantly turns a solitary moment of waiting into a social interaction, sharing a moment of weirdness with a group of strangers.

Fully costumed and mobile, Suburbaphonics will perform an original musical composition responding to the suburban colours of the neighbourhood, reclaiming the space from the drone of traffic, and encouraging participation.

Six concerts are planned, with each concert playing in three different bus stops. Public will be invited via social media or spontaneously come across them on their daily journey. Three day time concerts and three night-time concerts in and around Te Atatū Peninsula, Te Atatū South and Henderson.

Regular meetups will expand to walking explorations to key bus stops. Each performance will be carefully planned in advance, with all costumes and props designed and built by the ensemble. The music will be fully improvised for each session with acoustic instruments.

About

Conceived by composer and performer Rosie Langabeer, one of Aotearoa’s foremost composers for large ensembles, as well as theatre and dance musical compositions, Suburbaphonics began regular meet-ups in Rosie’s suburban home in Te Atatū South in 2023.

The concept of this improvising orchestra was to celebrate spontaneity and inclusiveness in music, using each meetup as an opportunity to ‘play’ together through music, eradicating judgment and commercial aspiration from the process of making music collectively.

Weekly meetups are preceded by eating and speaking together and the music they make together on that evening is the point rather than rehearsing for future performances, with an revolving group of around 10 musicians as well as regularly inviting domestic and international guests that may be in town.

In Dec 2023 they released an album of spontaneous Christmas songs “Christmas Smash-Up”, a free album shared widely. In June 2024 they created a performance an in-situ performance in Te Atatū Peninsula, “Elaborate Misgivings” combining music, theatre and living sculpture.

Members of the ensemble include but are not limited to; Rosie Langabeer, Deedee W, Marija Dimitrijevic, Neil Feather, Stephen Bain, Lily Wilkinson Linton, Lisa Samuels, Cath Cocker, Charlotte Van Asch, Luc Vitk, Maurice Reviol.