Time warps going on in my head… every evening - since ten days ago - I’m taking a shot of Stephan Micus’ music, as I own every disc and disk he recorder on Virgin, Japo o ECM labels.
Not a couple tracks, then swapping to other discs… a full length disk, religiously placed in the Studer or Meridian disk-player and then listened to day after day after day in its completeness adds an incredible strength to the musical experience, like a puzzle takes shape.
Cool!
I must say that music – every kind of music – has its moment: if you try to listen to a Micus’ disk and you’re not in the moods, you could get nervous in a few moments…
… but if your mood is right, well… you could be transported in different worlds and ages.
I’m listening to Stephan’s music since early ‘70s…
Even Bob Dylan, Tom Waits or Neil Young, also if I love them, are not on my top listenings list since a long time… I admit I listen to this stellar artists very, very randomly… a Master of War, a Blue Valentine or a Cinnamon Girl may sound - someway - outdated also if - I repeat - I love them a lot.
... not with Stephan Micus: every Stephan's disc I enjoyed since early ‘70s is an unique timeless aural experience, layers and layers of exotic and weird instruments from the most fat away areas of the planet which Stephan brought back home from his years and years on the road in Asia and Africa.
His vocals are most of the times sounding wordless… his chanting is timeless, hinting to eternity, as watching in awe to the stars from the top of a mountain.
Yesterday evening, while listening to the SMDotD (Stephan Micus Disk of the Day) – i.e. ”Life” on ECM (of course…), I really listened to this music relaxed and my mind was clear and empty like a winter blue sky.
The impression when the last track arrived and the Studer’s stopped was like I re-opened the eyes… not my conventional, physical eyes, but my inner eyes.
The tracks were so different one from the other…
A soundtrack for dreaming… a time machine, a tele-transportation tool to a Laddakh monastery.
Rock, jazz, folk, classical, ethnic… every term is both appropriate and unappropriate… world music, maybe is a good adjective, but not the pastiche seldom heard under this label.
It’s lounging and healing music… not, never ever boring… only mystic and religious as it can be.
When I briefly met him after a SUPERB concert in Bergamo, some years ago… I found a simple man, travelling light: a sho, a shakuachi, a ney and a duduk, plus his voice and some on-the-fly loops were enough for him… everything was contained in an old suitcase.
No limo, bodyguards, groupies… a very personal journey shared with the world: music & soul, soul & music, like a pagan prayer to an ancient god… maybe a spirit from eons ago.
The aural spaceship was easily ready to go…
In my tiny studio, listening to Stephan Micus’ music on a regular basis as I’m doing these days is like I’m adding – listen after listen – truth and knowledge to my real understanding.
Only caveat?
This seems to be the real, truest world vs. the everyday life… a world of beauty supersedes the conventional way of life, heart beating is slower and quieter, like breathing.
Only music, are you asking?
No, much more… a new way of life.
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