Features

Opinion - What started as a sordid but simple conflict between Jami-Lee Ross and Simon Bridges quickly became uncomfortable and grim over the course of the week.

The 'not quite alternative' American band Death Cab For Cutie serve up some sweet songs and sentiments on their new album Thank You For Today. William Dart is gratified. Video, Audio

Visiting pianist Marta Zabaleta plays music composed by Chopin during his near-disastrous holiday on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

The BBC Radio 4 series Soul Music tells stories about the emotional impact of songs and is now into its 26th series. Listen to an extract of the episode about the well-loved Leonard Cohen song 'Hallelujah'.  Audio

The exhibition attendant at Kiwi artist Dane Mitchell's 2019 Venice Biennale show will spend six weeks amongst the best new art in the world – but it's an opportunity only available to the privileged, says an Auckland art critic. Audio, Gallery

Jordan Arts, aka HIGH HØØPS, is unleashing an entire album of his smooth grooves to the world – Seasons on Planet Earth. He plays us a couple of tracks in the Auckland studio. Video, Audio

Six60 are the first New Zealand band in history to headline Western Springs, selling out the whopping 50,000-capacity venue four months before their February 2019 show. Lead singer Matiu Walters joins us to tell stories and select tracks for the RNZ Music Mixtape. Video, Audio

The South Canterbury mother-of-two and "multipotentialite" runs the community Facebook pages Farming Mums NZ and Just a Farmer's Wife and is also developing a virtual reality programme for rural education in schools. Audio

People of Rapa Nui, or Easter Islanders, have proposed creating a copy of a moai to swap with an original they are seeking to have repatriated.

For the third year in a row, and the majority of the preceding decade, Vaughan Williams' 'Lark Ascending' is this country's best-loved piece of classical music.

The media seized on the prospect of Jetsons-style Uber-in-the-air, while another airborne innovation that hit the headlines over-promised and under-delivered.   Audio

We're delighted to have Tiny Ruins back in our studio! Hollie Fullbrook has brought the whole band this time, ahead of their upcoming four date tour of New Zealand which starts tomorrow.   Audio

Young, Australian and colourful - the Orava Quartet won over audiences at NZ Festival 2018 with their committed playing of three classics.

The results are in! Here is New Zealand's favourite classical music for 2018, as voted for by the public. And the winner of Settling the Score 2018 is...

The very best in Americana, alt country and blues music, hosted by Mark Rogers. Monday nights after the 11 o'clock news on RNZ National, 101 FM.

The solo debut of New Orleans' piano player Jon Batiste is an album with gentle, hopeful drops of wisdom and a real heart, says Nick Bollinger. Audio

On the second floor of a small building in the Tokelau atoll of Atafu, Hihilia Falani and Tilau Kirifi are hard at work at something with little precedent in the territory: a newspaper.

The days of printed newspapers may be numbered, but until the 1920s they were New Zealand's only news media. Historian and author Ian F Grant talks to Colin Peacock about what we can learn from the papers of a century ago. Audio

Veteran Aussie psych-rockers The Church are coming to NZ this year. Lead singer Steve Kilbey talks with Wallace Chapman.about the band's rich history and his own life. Video, Audio

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Veteran Aussie psych-rockers The Church are coming to NZ to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their classic 1988 album Starfish, which includes the band’s best-known hit ‘Under the Milky Way’. Video, Audio

Did you know 'Hallelujah' took years to write and once had as many as 80 verses? It's one of hundreds of songs featured in the BBC Radio 4 series Soul Music. Audio

Campaigning has officially begun in New Caledonia for the referendum on independence from France which will be held on November the 4th.

Christ's University has become the first locally-owned university to be registered and accredited in Tonga.

The explosive revelations of MP-gone rogue Jami-Lee Ross hogged headlines last week and obscured reporting of some significant parts of the saga, says Colin Peacock. Video, Audio