5 Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies Volume 6 Number 1 © 2018 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/nzps.6.1.5_1 SEBASTIAN J. LOWE James Cook University ALISTAIR FRASER University of Otago Connecting with inner- landscapes: Taonga pu - oro, musical improvisation and exploring acoustic Aotearoa/ New Zealand ABSTRACT When nga - taonga pu - oro (traditional instruments of the Ma - ori) practitioners impro- vise music in the natural environment, they can be seen as explorers navigating and traversing the contours of the acoustic landscapes. As these practitioners come into dialogue with the non-humans of the natural environment, they are able to transform these relational experiences into sound phenomena, which in turn (re)create places that are meaningful to the practitioner and their audiences – human and other- wise. Taking a point of departure in a discussion between anthropologist Sebastian J. Lowe and renowned taonga pu - oro practitioner Alistair Fraser, this article looks at how Fraser enters into Te Ao Ma - ori (the Ma - ori world or dimension) and comes into dialogue with the entities of Te Ao Tu - roa (the natural world). In 2013, Fraser released an album called Rakiura (Stewart Island), which he made as part of a KEYWORDS Ma - ori culture taonga pu - oro improvisation natural environments acoustemology relational epistemology