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Artist: Stephan Micus
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Stephan Micus:

To the Rising Moon

To the Rising Moon is Stephan Micus’ 26th solo album for ECM. It features instruments from Colombia, India, Xinjiang (China), Bavaria, Cambodia, Egypt and Borneo, which have never before been combined in one composition. People often call themselves a multi-instrumentalist when they play three or four instruments, but Stephan plays eight on this album alone and countless more since his first ECM album, Implosions, in 1977.

Here, there’s one that takes centre stage that he’s playing for the first time, the Colombian tiple. It’s a little smaller than a guitar and is considered the national instrument of Colombia. Although still frequently played in its traditional, highly-European influenced context, modern composers hardly make use of it. “For me this instrument has the quality of light, of something shining,” Stephan says. “It’s like these metal strings are sparkling and for me the tiple pieces have a very positive energy.”

The tiple has 12 steel strings in four triple courses and it’s a composition for two tiples, To the Rising Sun, that opens the album with ringing strings.

“I’ve been to Colombia three times,” says Stephan, “and I really love the books of Gabriel García Márquez, particularly Love in the Time of Cholera. My first trip was mainly to try and experience the long ago world of this book and I went to Mompos on the River Magdalena. A friend had this tiple, lent it to me and I fell in love with it. Anyone who plays guitar can do something on the tiple.” Stephan got one made for him in 2017 by Orlando Pimentel, one of the leading tiple makers, and this is the first time he’s played it on one of his recordings.

On the album the plucked tiple pieces alternate with more reflective tracks with bowed strings. The first of these is Dream Within Dream, with six dilruba, a South Asian bowed instrument that Stephan gets to sound very lyrical and cello-like. “You won’t hear a dilruba from India with this kind of sound, which I found only after long experiments with alternative stringings. I always have this tendency to prefer the lower sounds - and so have commissioned instrument makers to build lower versions of the Moroccan genbri, Japanese shakuhachi and Armenian duduk.”

As well as playing instruments, Stephan uses his voice, although he uses it like an instrument. He doesn’t sing words, but improvised syllables, just there for their sound. The track In Your Eyes has three tiples plus voice in the mood of a poetic love song.

Stephan Micus:

Thunder

Stephan Micus’ new album is a tribute and offering to thunder gods around the world. As a natural phenomenon so dramatic and alarming, it’s clear that cultures everywhere would create their gods to placate lightening and thunder.

However Micus’ original inspiration wasn’t the thunder gods, but an instrument. Since 1973 he’s been travelling extensively in the Himalayas, from the Hindu Kush, Ladakh and Zanskar in the west to Eastern Nepal and Sikkim in the east. “The great attraction first of all was the mountains and the dramatic landscapes, but a highlight always was spending time in the Tibetan monasteries. Whenever I could I would listen to the ritual and ceremonial music. Music that seems timeless - both ancient and modern - at the same time.”

The most striking instruments in these Tibetan monastic ceremonies are the long dung chen trumpets, growling as a deep fundamental tone behind the most significant and pro-found ceremonies. This ritual trumpet is the inspiration behind Stephan’s 25th solo album for ECM, a compelling statement about our reaction to the power of nature, our inability to control it and desire to placate it.

Stephan Micus:

Winter's End

The Japanese poem accompanying Winter's End, Stephan Micus' 24th solo album for ECM, seems like a metaphor for his music. He chuckles at the suggestion, as he thinks of the hours and hours working with dozens of different instruments which he builds up layer upon layer in his studio. "For a musician or an artist, it's very important to keep your childlike nature," he says. "Of course, it's more fun to walk in deep snow than on an asphalt road. This is something I try to keep in mind in daily life."

The range of instruments on this album is one of the most extensive in Stephan Micus' catalogue with eleven instruments from ten countries: Mozambique, Gambia, Central Africa, Egypt, Japan, Bali, Xinjiang, Tibet, Peru and the USA. Most important, there are two instruments that he's never used before. One is recently acquired from Mozambique, the other has been sitting on a shelf awaiting its turn for 40 years. 

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