Rennie Pearson and Oscar West are the traditional music duo Polytropos.
They arrange the sounds of the fiddle, flute, guitar, Scottish smallpipes, mandolin, voice and Irish whistle in curious and adventurous ways, taking the listener on a journey of many twists and turns.
Initially meeting at their local session in Wellington, Polytropos began as a platform for Kiwi multi-instrumentalists Oscar West and Rennie Pearson to share and explore their passion for traditional Irish and Scottish music. Their debut concert at Wellington Folk Festival in 2011 was a wild success and in the intervening years they have worked extensively as professional musicians both locally and internationally.
“Polytropos” comes from ancient Greek and appears hundreds of times in Homer’s Odyssey. It's many possible translations range from “much-travelled” to “many-faced” to “a thing of many twists and turns.” All of these connotations felt perfect to describe the music we seek to create: dynamic, much-wandering journeys through tunes songs and a musical tradition that had travelled half a world to reach us in New Zealand. It also acknowledges the music’s own odyssey via migration from the hills of Ireland, Scotland and Cape Breton to the rugged, natural landscapes of Aotearoa.
No matter where we go individually, the pair of us have always come back to New Zealand to develop the Polytropos sound. The wild landscapes of our homeland are reflected in the music we make and inspire our creative approach to arrangements. Polytropos is a listening experience that combines all of our experience as traditional music players and expresses the elements we find most compelling in the music. The old tunes and songs are so curious, raw and full of storytelling and bringing them to life in front of audiences continues to remind us how powerful this kind of music can be in tying history, geography and people together.
Oscar and Rennie, 2020
Rennie Pearson
Wooden flute, DADGAD guitar, vocals
Rennie started playing the Boehm system flute at an early age. Initially learning classical music, he soon found his heart lay in the Celtic traditional music. He switched to playing the wooden flute under the tutelage of leading New Zealand flute players, Pat Higgins and Brendyn Montgomery, as well as wooden flute maistro Chris Norman from Canada. Rennie spent a year in Canada and USA studying flute and performing with some of Celtic music's leading musicians including Chris Norman, David Greenberg, and Catherine McEvoy. In 2016 he received a Boxwood scholarship for rising young performers.
Rennie has music in his veins and plays many instruments which he incorporates in his performances to great effect. He currently lives in Golden Bay.
Oscar West
Fiddle, Scottish smallpipes, whistles, vocals
Born in Scotland but raised in New Zealand Oscar felt a strong calling to the fiddle and pipes at a young age. His first encounter with Irish music was hearing Sean Keane’s fiddling on a Chieftains album and realising that was the way he wanted to play his violin. Since that moment he has pursued a career in music as well as theatre, completing a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies in 2015. In most recent years his work has heavily involved touring with the hugely successful Australasian Shakespearean theatre company The Pop-up Globe for which he has provided live musical elements for over 600 performances spanning 16 different productions. His instrumental work is heavily featured in the company’s 2016 soundtrack release “Heart’s Ease - Music from the Pop-up Globe” and his fiddle and whistle playing has been employed on several music productions including 2019’s World of Wearable Arts. Oscar is a passionate performer and advocate of the wild, rich world of Irish and Scottish traditional music and an ambassador for its presence in the Southern Hemisphere.