Hans Kellett and Dan Untitled
Property partner: Zebrano
2 Tory Street, Wellington
April 26 – 28 2017: 3.30-8pm
April 29 - 30 2017: 11am – 3.30pm
Song archive:  https://thesongdispensary.wordpress.com/.

Images: Gabrielle McKone and Wanaka Festival of Colour

A chemist's shop where the prescription is music not medicine. We’re all listening to music wherever we go, but the behind-the-scenes work of creating music is mysterious, unknown territory for most of us. The Song Dispensary uses a vacant space in Wellington to open the door wide, inviting the public inside to help write an original song – one all about you!

Now in its third instalment following the 2015 Performance Arcade in Wellington and fresh from this year’s Festival of Colour in Wanaka, The Song Dispensary as chemist’s shop, sees walk-up visitors receiving a consultation to determine what kind of song they might need, and to set up a framework for their song.

Following the consultation, the two musical-medical practitioners Hans Kellett and Dan Untitled get to work writing an original song.

The open shop front they have been provided by Urban Dream Brokerage means that passers-by can observe the off-the-cuff writing process in action, and even assist in getting the concoctions right. At the end of the writing process, the song is performed live, and then uploaded to the online music dispensary - https://thesongdispensary.wordpress.com/ - patient confidentiality, of course, is assured.

For Berlin-based, NZ-born Hans Kellett - who developed the project over many years in Europe - the chance to participate in songwriting in action is just as important as the final ‘products’. “There’s often a perceived barrier between ‘everyday life’ and ‘art’, so it’s a real honour to talk to ‘non-artists’ about their stories and then see the giggles and moist eyes when they hear their songs back and realise that just in chatting to us the hidden artistry and poetry of how they are living their lives has been revealed – and that poetry is in all of us, sometimes right there in front of us”.

The project has been supported by Letting Space’s Urban Dream Brokerage service with funding from Wellington City Council. Urban Dream Brokerage finds space for new ideas that enliven our city through public participation. Hans Kellett is supported by the Goethe Institut New Zealand. The Song Dispensary in Wellington is made possible by generous support from Creative New Zealand, and sponsorship from Goethe-Institut New Zealand

The property is kindly provided by Zebrano, dispensers of Fine Fashion and lovers of Great Music.