Stephan Micus: The Garden Of Mirrors

Description

"The Garden Of Mirrors", cultural sound-traveller Stephan Micus's fourteenth album, can today be considered a pillar in the German multi-instrumentalist's wide-reaching oeuvre - one which Down Beat called "remarkable, haunting and truly timeless" upon its original release on ECM in 1997. Micus has built a musical identity based on the concept of never repeating himself twice, nor employing the same array of instruments on different albums. On "The Garden Of Mirrors", his ever-expanding pool of instruments, often collected during travels around the world, is reduced to two traditional African harps, the bolombatto (gut strings) and sinding (hemp strings), which Micus first encountered in Gambia, where he studied them with the help of local musicians. However, he's keen to point out that the compositions on the album are not African music, though "to a certain extent the harps create this sort of African ambience, conveying the essence of their culture. They give the music a physical quality. They speak directly to the body, making this one of my most rhythmic albums." "My music reflects the contemporary world," he claims, "where one can travel easily and experience different cultures, or just go into a store and find examples of all these different musics." Micus' use of traditional instruments expresses some of the many possibilities which exist for interaction between various cultures. Here, they create a striking programme that has its own unique signature. As The Times has said, "Micus's music possesses gossamer beauty. Timeless, magical music with a universal appeal." "Garden of Mirrors" is now issued on vinyl for the first time.