Label: ECM Records
Personnel - Stephan Micus: 12-string guitar, chikulo, sinding, nohkan, nay, charango, sattar, suling, kalimba, tongue drum, Tibetan cymbals, vocals
Winter’s End, the 26th solo album from German multi-instrumentalist Stephan Micus on ECM was mounted with 11 instruments from 10 countries and impeccable vocal layers.
“Autumn Hymn” fuses the heaven and earth through an ethnic dance that incorporates the nohkan, a traverse Japanese bamboo flute that darts and weaves over droning throbs and clicking noises of a trio of chikulos, a bass xylophone from Mozambique.
On the first page of the CD booklet we read the following quote from the Japanese poet Murakami Kijo: “Although there is the road, the child walks in the snow”. Inspired by it, Micus delivers both “Walking in Snow” and “Walking in Sand” in a 12-string guitar that oozes kindness, poignancy and a quiet vibration that is complemented with occasional harmonics.
Whether “A New Light” probes eastern chamber tones thanks to the sattar sounds (a long necked bowed instrument used by the Uigurs, a Turkman people from Western China), “Oh Chikulo” builds its nomadic narrative with deeper percussive sounds, employing four chikulos for the effect. This last instrument is also at the base of “Black Mother”, which admits clever modulation and a tuneful choral of 11multi-pitched voices recorded by Micus. He takes his singing gift even further on the beautiful “The Longing of the Migrant Birds”, whose dancing rhythm and spellbinding 14 layers of voice take us into a spiritual journey from Europe to Africa.
With expressive melancholy, “Southern Stars” drops passionate, romantic vibes emitted by four charangos (a small Andean stringed instrument), five sulings (Indonesian bamboo ring flute), one sinding (West African harp) and two nays (ancient Egyptian hollow flute).
This album, in all its simplicity and beauty, might not surpass its two predecessors - Inland Sea (2017) and White Night (2019) - but Micus’ harmonious and rhythmic qualities are found intact.
Grade B
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Walking in Snow ► 03 - The Longing of the Migrant Birds ► 11 - Walking in Sand