Clare: I was thinking about how to represent the meaning of the sea to me as a source of solace and imagined just filming the waves at Breaker Bay Beach with an original soundscape.

I went onto Facebook to the Wellington music page and saw a post from Ruby who was looking for a cello...and I thought yes, cello music...so we started chatting and here you have it...a beautiful original soundscape by Ruby Mae Hinepunui.

Ruby: When Clare contacted me about the solace project and her vision, I decided that a ‘cello meditation’ would fit perfectly.

Usually, I create this style of music purely to work at discovering new sounds on my instrument, exploring its resonance and my relationship with my cello.

For me, playing these meditations was I way that I relax by playing something purely for myself, no audience; just me and my cello.

But creating a meditation for an audience created a refreshed experience, where I could share my relaxation techniques with others.

My meditation pieces often revolve around a particular them that is then developed over the piece’s duration, in a way this symbolises someone’s thinking process towards a problem, and how they eventually come to a point where it can be resolved. Taking my problems to the cello and working through my issues with my instrument has helped to get through my problems in a calm, collected way without words racing their way around their brain.

Pieces such as this one bring me solace and help me to clear my mind and body so that my cello and I can create other, faster and more melodic works.