The Bilders


Bilders is a New Zealand music group of varying lineups that produced a string of self-recorded 7-inch vinyl releases between 1980 and 1982 leading to Beatin Hearts, the first studio-album from fledgling New Zealand independent record label 'Flying Nun Records'.
Known variously from pre-internet times as Die Bilder, Bilderbergers, Soluble Fish, and High Thirties Piano, their alternative band names reflected a playfulness that challenged priority branding. The band does not maintain a steady profile. Months or years may pass without a performance, however 2018 was a prolific year for remastering and re-releases, with many live performances. New material of the show Expendable Animals, however, was not recorded, unless on iPhones.
Labels such as Zelle Records, Unwucht, Grapefruit, Siltbreeze, Powertool and SmartGuy have issued or reissued vinyl releases since 2010. Latest releases are a vinyl remaster of 1994 CD "Cut", vinyl remaster of 2008 CD Chrysanthemum Storm, vinyl reissue and remaster of the 1982 recorded LP Beatin Hearts, a 7-inch EP of new songs Measly, 'Cell Songs', and participation in two compilations of music by Dunedin bands based on poems by Scottish poet Robert Burns with Zelle Records.
Bilders' material is known for 'rough' music making, and a lo-fi recording style that has produced "many genuine classic compositions".

Guests and collaborators

A large number of musicians have taken part in Bilders performances and recordings. In the 1980s co-workers included Bill Direen, Campbell McLay, mastermind of the Onset Offset label, members of The Terminals, Scorched Earth Policy and Victor Dimisich Band, along with other prime movers such as entrepreneur/composer Alastair Galbraith 1994, artist and guitarist Alec Bathgate, Chris Knox of Toy Love and Tall Dwarfs, and poet/performer Alan Brunton and journalist Steve Braunias. Malcolm Grant was Bilders drummer before moving to The Bats.
Guests and collaborators are varied in musical styles and backgrounds. in 2018, a theatre-cabaret event with an important improvisational ingredient played in all the main centres in New Zealand with a flexible lineup. Key members were Stuart Porter, William Henry Meung, Alex Wolken, Brendan Ryniker, Steve Cournane, Susan Ellis, Pania Simmonds, Greig Bainbridge, with guests appearing "à l'improviste" in many centres. Latest co-musicians for a short tour of the state of Tennessee with an appearance at Cropped Out Festival in Kentucky were Nashville residents Matthew Swanson and Chris Davis. Other US collaborators have been members of Simon Joyner's Ghosts including Joyner himself, with Dave Nance and Chris Deden. Steve Cournane plays regularly, expanding the repertoire to include rarer material. In Wellington Direen, guitarist/curator/founder of Marineville Mark Williams and poet/composer/percussionist Jo Contag have formed a new group doing new material composed by the group, known in 2016 as Ferocious. Pianist Andrew McCully will join Builders in Auckland later this year to revive Songs for Michael Joseph Savage. Steve Cournane and Greig Bainbridge, working with Stuart Porter of Primitive Art Group are among musicians essential to a Builders tour of New Zealand in 2016.
Other past members include Berlin violinist TThomthom G'schrey, Stuart Page, Robbie Yeats, David Watson, Miggy Littleton, Hamish Kilgour of The Clean, David Wukitsevits of Austrian band Der Nino aus Wien, Jess McCann, Stuart Porter, Louise Johns, Mark Williams, Jo Contag, Barry Stockley, artist-guitarist Nikola Kapétanovic, dancer and actress France Herv], Kersten Ginsberg, pianist, composer, improvisor, filmmaker Jonathan Crayford - piano, Rick And, Peter Scott, Andrew McCully and Andrew Maitai. Further groups have played or collaborated in Europe, USA, Australia and NZ; musicians include Jon Evans and French DJ Fred Morvan. In 2018 Direen is working with Steve Cournane on a live set that samples all Builders periods. He is also collaborating with new musicians in Australia, Wellington and the USA.
This list is not complete.

Selected Discography

Since the early 1980s, Bilders' music has been released on labels such as South Indies, Unwuch, SmartGu, Grapefruit Record Club, Onec Records Plymouth UK, Siltbreeze, Onset Offset Christchurch NZ, Powertool NZ , EMI, and Warner Bros Flying Nun.