ABOUT US
BOAT are currently a guitar and drum duo featuring Simon Bowden and Steve Cournane.
Respected New Zealand composers and improvisers, Simon and Steve are also members of the 2001 New Zealand Music, Jazz Album of the Year, Award winning band, CL BOB.
BOAT’s music blends electric grooves, free improvisation, drones and more.
Reformed for the 2018 Auckland event The Experiment, where they presented their performance entitled To Enter You Must Pass the Wall of Sound, BOAT returned to The Experiment in 2019 to critical acclaim. In 2021 BOAT performed with, and composed for, live Tesla Coil. Recordings from this concert have been released as Live at CubaDupa 2021 and are available on Spotify, and Apple Music and can be purchased on Band Camp.
History
Boat formed in Wellington in mid 1996 with Steve Cournane (drums), Nils Olsen (saxophones) and Simon Bowden (guitar). The band recorded music for two short films in 1998: Bella (dir. Karen Nobes) and Imbroglio (dir. Kris Hermansson) and released an self titled album in 1999 on Greenbone Records, which predominantly featured home four-track recordings.
The band was dormant while Cournane worked on cruise ships for a time then lived in Peru for seven years. In 2019, Steve and Simon re-instigated the band as a duo and began to explore a fusion of electronic music and free improvisation using computers, drums and guitar.
Thanks to Reuben Raj for the use of photos taken at The Experiment 2019