Recording since 1973, this is Stephan Micus' 25th album. I have enjoyed Stephan's music since first hearing him in the mid eighties, my memory is feeling like I was listening to his music inside a huge cavern. I began getting into his music in the mid-nineties.
Stephan lends a whole new meaning to the term multi-instrumentalist, he plays a dizzying array of instruments from many countries, and he plays them well. Stephan received tutelage from masters of some of the instruments he plays. Inspired by ethnomusicological interests, a pan-global appreciation of spirituality, archaic and living, inspires Stephan too. This spiritual inspiration is implicit within Thunder - a tribute to thunder gods from around the world.
Naturally, Stephan is a frequent traveller, and has journeyed to the Himalayas on a number of occasions where he stayed at various Tibetan monasteries. Enter, the dung chen, a Tibetan long trumpet used in ritual, ceremonies, and as a means for heralding occasions. If you have heard Tibetan music recordings of say the Nonesuch Explorer Series, Windham Hill, Mickey Hart, or maybe Phurpa, you'll have heard the dung chen. It's sound has deep fog-horn like timbre. Stephan was taught to play the dung chen by monks at the Bodnath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a central musical "character" in the album, featuring at the opening, middle and closing of the album - keeping time. Calling in perhaps.
Stephan sings on Thunder too, he has a warm voice, and often extends syllables considerably, lending the songs a stately, hallowed, feel (A Song for Ihskur). Stephan will often multi-track an instrument (A Song for Leigong, A Song for Raijin), or his voice (A Song for Ishkur, A Song for Shango), adding layers of depth and richness to the sound. On A Song for Perun, he plays four dung chen and two frame drums - the effect is arresting, and sublime. If you were to look further back into Stephans catalogue, you'll find these multi-tracked layers on pretty much all of his recordings - perhaps explore, Athos (22 Flowerpots on The Second Day, 22 Voices on The Third Night), The Garden of Mirrors (22 Suling on Flowers in Chaos), panagia (8 dilruba, 3 sattar, 5 nay, 10 voices on I Praise You, Sweet-Smelling Cypress).
Keep in mind, any god of thunder, must needs be a god of rain, of fertility, plants, and trees. While listening to Thunder, I was reminded of Stephan's delicacy which is present throughout this album and many, if not all of his recordings. Booming horns, or drums may be accompanied by tingling bells, chimes, nohkan (flute), maintaining necessary gravitas and "drama" while balancing through a measure of restraint - there is no clamour in these intensities. Silence, or space, is also crucial in Stephen's palette of sound. If I was to talk of musically similar ensembles, Don Cherry sans jazz (A Song for Thor), Jordi Savall's ensemble Hesperion XXI (particularly on A Song for Zeus) come to mind and even Dead Can Dance. I'd also mention the likes of Arthea, and closer to home, Colin Offord, or Mark Cain as kindred spirits in sound. Though, like these other musicians, Stephan is of his own, creating unique tapestries of sound.
Four Songs:
A Song for Thor - an album dedicated to thunder gods needs to establish a high bench mark and so it is with the Old Norse/Germanic deity, Thor. Twin frame drums and four dung chen combine in a booming chorus that is joined by the trumpet like sounds of the Siberian ki un ki. There is an almost unhinged energy to this song, evoking (imagined, mind you!) Dionysian rites to my mind. Bells enter the sound field and disappear throughout this piece, adding a touch of subtlety and perhaps honouring the gentler aspect of this otherwise hyper masculine deity.
A Song for Vajrapani - equally awesome, Vajrapani, is the widely venerated. He, is often depicted as a Bodhisattva, and, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism, as particularly fierce. This song repeats the instruments of the previous song, however the ki un ki, is replaced by the ethereal sound of the Japanese transverse flute, the nokhan. While similar to a Song for Thor, to my mind there is a more centered, reverential feel to this song. Perhaps evoking more rain, than thunder. Or grateful silence.
A Song for Leigong - the Chinese Taoist pantheon features Leigong as their Lord of Thunder. Distant roar, evoking a shell cupped over the ear, created by the layered sound of 7 storm drums opens this meditative piece. Then bowed dinding flesh the drone, chimes enter, creating a nearer, lighter spatial dimension - a shakuhachi intones its melody. This is a peaceful track, that by my hearing suggests the peace after a thunder storm has passed, as it's rumble disappears into the distance.
A Song for Ihskur - ancient Sumer's pantheon of gods is the inspiration for this piece. It's one of two more sparse pieces, placed at the beginning (A Song For Armazi) and end of the album. Featuring the sounds of a new instrument in Stephan's repertoire, the kaukas of the San people from Southern Africa. A metallic stringed harp, the kaukus is joined by the gentle strumming of the sapeh, a lute from Borneo and they create a cyclic melody that is redolent of a hand turned musical box albeit with a richer, warmer timbre. This minimal cycle is then joined by the warm resonance of Stephans song, I cannot pick a language, and without any indication otherwise, I'd suggest he is improvising wordlessly - beautifully so.
I hope you find an opportunity to listen to this, or any other of Stephan's recordings. He truly is a forerunner of this style of music, and can create sublimely immersive soundworlds where one can surrender to the sound, and step out of time - if only for just a moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment