Stephan Micus
Listen to the Rain

THE REVIEW

A random name from the ECM catalog, the German record label synonymous with high-quality: Stephan Micus. And a random album from Micus's extensive work, he too is German, a multi-instrumentalist and composer. An enticing title is needed to encourage listening: "Listen to the Rain," here it is, an album recorded between 1980 and 1983. A decidedly new age title, when new age was yet to emerge, created with equally decidedly world music instrumentation when world music was a commercial category not yet invented.

Micus owes the instrumentation of this album to his travels around the world and the study, with local musicians, of the instruments he encountered along the way: suling and shakuhachi, both bamboo flutes, the former from Bali, the latter of Japanese origin; dilruba, an Indian instrument similar to the sitar, played with a bow; tambura, a type of lute of Indian origin but also present in the Balkans; along with the acoustic guitars, designed by Micus himself, with 10 strings or double 7 strings.

An entirely instrumental album where charm and pleasant sound go hand in hand. The first three tracks (average duration 7 minutes) are essentially duets that give Micus the opportunity to unleash all his melodic verve: in "Dancing with the Morning," the introduction is entrusted to the guitar, which is later joined by the bamboo flute; in the title track, an ostinato of five notes provides the support for a long guitar solo that eventually closes the piece solitary; in "White Paint on Silver Wood," again the bamboo flute draws the melodic lines and is joined, until the conclusion, by the guitar.

The fourth track, "For Abai and Togshan," is longer and more complex, almost entirely entrusted to the intertwining and overlapping of dilruba and tambura: 20 minutes of great fascination in a piece divided into three or four main episodes, with a brief guitar interlude, where Micus's main concern is to draw airy melodies that invade the sound space with their suggestion.

An example, among many, of talent and musical sensitivity, "Listen to the Rain" once again demonstrates to us the versatility of its author, who finds with the instruments and musical cultures of a world usually remote to us the most personal tone of his voice.