Stephan Micus: Panagia (ECM/Ode)

 |   |  <1 min read

Stephan Micus: You Are a Shining Spring
Stephan Micus: Panagia (ECM/Ode)

In a previous profile of the German-born musician Stephan Micus (here), I noted that his musical journey has run parallel to a deeply spiritual one and this album -- his 20th for ECM, settings of six Byzantine Greek prayers alongside quietly moving instrumentals -- would seem the culmination of a particular voyage.

As always the multi-instrumentalist and singer reaches beyond perhaps the more literal interpretations and from the opener I Praise You Unfading Rose (the album's title refers to the Greek word for female goddess, sometimes the Virgin Mary) he sounds more like a Hindu monk chanting a slow prayer.

And You Are the Treasure of Life which follows uses temple bells and dilruba (an Indian bowed violin-type instrument) to take the mood down even further into a meditative state.

The Greek element is more apparent in pieces like I Praise You Lady of Passion (a piece for 22 voices) and I Praise You Sacred Mother (20 voices) but mostly this is world music of no fixed cultural abode (but emphatically not New Age), like the best of Micus' work.

For more on the fascinating background to this album you should go here, but in the absence of any information this quiet, philosophical and gently mesmerising album transcends musical and spiritual boundaries.

An acquired taste perhaps but one to really turn off your mind and drift downstream . . .

Like the sound of this? Then check out this.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Jazz at Elsewhere articles index

Wabjie: Lull (bandcamp)

Wabjie: Lull (bandcamp)

Prompted by Elsewhere's recent article about the Meredith Monk album Dolmen Music, a Swiss jazz-cum-elsewhere trio asked if we might be interested in their work. They go by the name Wabjie --... > Read more

SONNY ROLLINS INTERVIEWED (2011): The old lion still prowling

SONNY ROLLINS INTERVIEWED (2011): The old lion still prowling

Gary Giddins, the authoritative US jazz critic, said of tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins that he was “one of the last immort­als, the most powerful presence in jazz today. He is its most... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE BARGAIN BUY: Lana Del Rey; Born to Die, Paradise Edition

THE BARGAIN BUY: Lana Del Rey; Born to Die, Paradise Edition

 For reasons which Elsewhere could never quite understand but tried to explain here, the incredibly talented Del Rey drew derision from many quarters. That's what happens when... > Read more

VINCENT VAN GOGH; PAINTED WITH WORDS, a film by ANDREW HUTTON

VINCENT VAN GOGH; PAINTED WITH WORDS, a film by ANDREW HUTTON

When Van Gogh's famous painting Sunflowers sold in 1987 for the then-record sum of US$39.9 million -- or as Robert Hughes noted, "in real money some 5.8 billion yen" -- it was read as yet... > Read more