Stephan Micus - Albums Collection 1977-2010 (15CD)

An ethereal, primordial Experience. Implosions is a state of consciousness that wraps you in the arms of swirling air, transports you to ethnic lands, where spices catch your pallet. Where stories are swapped and legends of old are discovered again. Stephan Micus takes you down the river Ganges as he plays from the sitar, you are in a languished state of being. His ethnic chants suffocate you until you are spirit removed from flesh. The mist begins to fall and as the fog rolls in you are swept into the remotest parts of the world, where things thought to have been lost or abandoned have been uncovered. Caravans from the east are swept into a mirage in the horizon, while strange red stone pillars stab at the sky. Then you come across the foothills of machu picchu, incensed by its abandonment you climb to the summit there an elder of a race long since vanished gives you knowledge of the new world. You stumble back into reality, Unable to return.

Yeah, Stephan's sophomore album is probably one of the artists strongest releases for the first side alone, As I Crossed A Bridge of Dreams is a towering monolith. While there is a noticeable drop in quality come the second side, its still holds its own through out. I like to think the lesser tracks like Amarchaj lend themselves well to being breathers. Borkenkind is one of my favorites simply for how creepy it feels, like waking up from a bad dream and being chased out in the woods somewhere.

This is arguably one of the best produced albums Ive ever heard, period. While ripping the vinyl into a digital copy I was struck by how crisp and smooth every pluck and strum from either the sitar or rabab was. Truly Micus's best hands down, and this is only his second album!

Review by tumbleweed, RateYourMusic.com

MUSIC FROM THE COLLECTIVE HUMAN SOUL

…and, actually, FOR the collective human soul, as well. The music created over the years by Stephan Micus speaks both 'of' and 'to' all of humanity – and he does so with such an obvious love and respect of all cultures that his music truly tanscends boundaries like no other I've ever experienced.

IMPLOSIONS, his second album, recorded in 1977, was his first work for JAPO/ECM Records – and the start of a long, continuing, fruitful relationship. Manfred Eicher has a long-standing reputation for allowing the artists he produces to enjoy complete freedom of expression and creativity, as well as recording quality that is crystalline and matchless – I can think of no other organization with whom Micus' art would be more at home.

The instruments used on this recording are varied, coming from areas of Europe and Asia. On the lengthy opening track, 'As I crossed a bridge of dreams', Micus employs 3 sitars, an acoustic guitar, and his incredible voice. This piece was the first recording he made using his voice – he sings in no language, but so expressively, so in-tune with the spirit of the music, that the listener can easily imagine that the words have deep meaning and carry strong emotion. The piece moves through several mood changes – but never becomes 'noisy' or discordant. There is a pervasive sense of peace in his music – even in the more rhythmically rapid pieces.

The next piece, 'Borkenkind', uses 3 Bavarian zithers, as well as Stephan's voice. The instruments swirl and meld behind the voice, creating another beautiful mood. The third track, 'Amarchaj', is more meditative, created on 4 shakuhachi (the Japanese bamboo flute used by Zen monks for meditation) – and it's incredibly beautiful. The fourth track, 'For the "Beautiful changing child"', uses a little-known instrument from Japan, the sho (actually, 3 of them). The sho is a type of mouth organ with 17 reed pipes – the wind from the player enters through a mouthpiece on the wooden base in which the pipes are mounted. Micus states in his notes that because of the materials used in this instrument, dampness in any amount can disturb the sound, therefore making it probably the only instrument in the world which has to be heated before playing. He combines the 3 sho on this piece with a single Thai flute. The final track on the recording is 'For M'schr and Djingin Khan' – played on a single rabab (a type of lute from Afghanistan) and accompanied, again, by Micus' voice. The effect of this piece is stunning – I can close my eyes when listening to it and easily imagine myself sitting on a windy steppe, under a full moon, hearing tales spun from the music.

The music of Stephan Micus is one of the greatest treasures I have discovered in the 40+ years I've been seriously exploring the musical world. He has released 16 recordings since his first in 1974 – not the most prolific artist out there, but, with the quality that he has come to exemplify, one of the most productive. If you have never experienced the work of this amazing artist, you should try one of his cds – this one, IMPLOSIONS, would be a great place to start…and I say 'start' with the confidence that many of those who give him a listen will want to keep exploring his work. It's a thing of rare and precious beauty – and something that can bind different cultures together, rather than push them apart. We could use that now, more than ever…

Review by Larry L. Looney, Amazon.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 24. February 2013, 14:17

Stephan Micus / Implosions

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

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Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%


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No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

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==== Log checksum 060E799B68B3FA00EA1832B9A0FD21B2EB58C8CEC7578B9B80D1537719621A6D ====

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-03-15 02:05:19

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Implosions
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -0.61 dB -19.21 dB 21:24 01-As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams (3 Sitars, Acoustic Guitar, Vocal)
DR15 -1.14 dB -23.15 dB 6:48 02-Borkenkind (3 Bavarian Zithers, Vocal)
DR11 -5.76 dB -22.66 dB 5:19 03-Amarchaj (4 Shakuhachi)
DR10 -5.19 dB -22.81 dB 3:44 04-For the Beautiful Changing Child (3 Sho, Thai Flute)
DR12 -1.68 dB -16.93 dB 6:25 05-For M'schr and Djingis Khan (Rabab, Vocal)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 5
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 712 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Before migrating across the ECM continent, Stephan Micus outfitted some of his most formative expeditions in the territories of the JAPO sub-label. On these albums one hears Micus at his most elemental, turning every gesture into inter-spatial awareness. The album’s duration of 36 minutes only serves to deepen its intimacy as a space in which the listener might catch a cushion of meditation in a world of splinters.

Micus’s practice has always been to render the stem before the flower, and in the album’s title track a table harp provides that very illustrative function. Its dulcimer-like heart beats a rhythm at once ancient and fresh, curling as the scriptural page, its edges darkened from constant contact with the hands. Those same hands cradle a method of speech so musical that its melody is discernible only in the freedom of solitude. This is perhaps why Micus tends to work alone: so that he might open every angle honestly and uniquely, until the geometry of his life grows big enough to Venn-diagram into the listener’s own. Bowed zither expands the roots and gives way to a kortholt, a crumhorn-like reed from the Renaissance that pulls hidden colors from the sunlight. A classical guitar, which all but disappears from Micus’s later work, defines ethereal flesh through a worldly skeleton. Like the music itself, it is gut and wood and movement, drawing a string through immediate intellect to that of another time.

“For Wis And Ramin” is even more direct in its expressiveness, triangulating guitar and zither with Micus’s imagined singing. Imagined, because no words would do justice to the palette from which he draws, one that harbors not the barest pigment of politics. After the opening classical guitar solo connects its geometric touch-points, only a throated language can bring to the light that which is born in the dark. Micus is thus a troubadour who seeks love not only on earth but also from heaven, so that when the zither walks in the voice’s path, we must also feel the soles of our feet pressing their outlines into planes of stardust, refuges of forgotten pollen.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

What price art? A previous reviewer here has complained about paying full price for a, to their thinking, short cd. Doesn't that sort of 'commodifying' of music, or any art, turn it into merely 'product'? The artist creates to the fullness of their vision, particularly an artist like Mr. Micus. To demand more than was needed to make the artistic statement is to deny the artist their own stake in creativity. Would we ask Picasso or Van Gogh or any painter to use more of a certain colour? This work is what it is. To measure it in minutes played compared to dollars spent makes it more akin to a train ticket (distance travelled to dollars spent) than an artwork. As Joni Mitchell says on the 'Miles of Aisles' album when the audience is calling for a particular song again 'You wouldn't say to Van Gogh "Paint A Starry Night again man". We painted it and it's done'. And this album by Mr. Micus is done beautifully and finely and makes a complete statement.

He has his own techniques for the creation of his art. They are very intuitive and born out of a meditative approach, something that carries over into the work itself. The following is from an interview on Robero Gatti's website ([…]), where he describes his approach to music-making: "Could you please explain better what you mean by that?
"I would be glad to do it, if I only knew: but the fact is that I don't understand it myself! The fact is, I just sit down, relax, and within me I feel only a kind of "bubble": an initial idea, to name it in rational terms. But the fact is, there is nothing rational in all this, the entire process comes from the unconscious: as soon as I manage to create a sort of "void" within me. At this point the "bubble" starts to grow, expand, until it reaches an almost complete form: which I immediately record on tape. Then I listen to the whole thing again, I refine it, polish it, choose the instruments that are more suitable and the most significant "phrases". And then I realize that at that point I have almost finished my work… .".

I'm not going to get in the way of that by asking for more. It is what it is and what it is is beautiful and well worth investigating.

Review by Noel A. Hodda, Amazon.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 24. February 2013, 22:32

Stephan Micus / Till the End of Time

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

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Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%


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All tracks accurately ripped

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End of status report

==== Log checksum 4ECEDC943ADF488571BC0E00EE370123D5B2669FDDBA8CEF75115634C1E8F458 ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-03-26 22:12:17

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Till the End of Time
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR15 -1.02 dB -21.26 dB 17:46 01-Till the End of Time
DR16 -1.33 dB -22.49 dB 18:07 02-For Wis and Ramin
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 2
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 590 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Wings Over Water is a set of acoustic ambient creativity from Stephan Micus, a master sound designer. He uses a ney flute, Spanish guitars, Bavarian zithers, acoustic guitars, a sarangi, voice, and 22 flowerpots. This is very exotic and esoteric music. Micus takes advantage of the natural timbres and textures of these devices and creates a different kind of ambience. It is definitely not mainstream, decidedly avant-garde, and highly essential for the adventurous music lover. It is in a class by itself.

Review by Jim Brenholts, Allmusic.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 23:52

Stephan Micus / Wings Over Water

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

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Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
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Quality : High
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Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.32 | 7:28.55 | 32 | 33686
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4 | 26:36.62 | 1:52.18 | 119762 | 128179
5 | 28:29.05 | 10:44.52 | 128180 | 176531
6 | 39:13.57 | 14:11.58 | 176532 | 240414


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All tracks accurately ripped

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End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-11 20:12:25

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Wings Over Water
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR9 -3.08 dB -14.99 dB 7:29 01-Part 1 - 5 acoustic Guitars, Ney
DR11 -1.51 dB -19.07 dB 6:11 02-Part 2 - Sarangi, Voice, 6 Flowerpots
DR14 -2.59 dB -22.77 dB 12:57 03-Part 3 - 2 Spanish Guitars, 9 Flowerpots
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DR11 -3.54 dB -19.34 dB 14:12 06-Part 6 - 3 Spanish Guitars, 4 Bavarian Zithers, Suling
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 6
Official DR value: DR10

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 606 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

If Micus’s saga were an ongoing raga, then 1983’s Listen to the Rain would be one of its most inward-looking prayers. All four meditations that make up the album, while externally distinct, are internally connected through Micus’s use of guitar. The Spanish variety plays a particularly active role throughout, with the sole exception of “Dancing with the Morning,” for which he pairs the ubiquitous steel-stringed with the suling, a bamboo flute often heard in gamelan ensembles of southeast Asia. Knowledgeable listeners will recognize both the rarity of the backpacker’s trusty companion in the Micus canon and its elemental necessity in this setting. The ascetic sheen of its metal strings paints a world of shine to which a human presence adds less manufactured colors. The suling’s unclipped wings, by extension, are exhaled into the sky above, circling and darting through the surrounding melodies until they take shape under cover of their own imagination.

The title track is a duet for Spanish guitar and tamboura. True to his extensively creative spirit, Micus plays the latter like a zither, over which the former’s gut strings produce an ascendant pathway into “White Paint on Silver Wood,” which trades the tamboura for shakuhachi. The Japanese bamboo flute begins with a solo that teeters on the edge of breathlessness and follows through on its wandering spirit. Flamenco-esque touches evoke movement not only of dancer’s feet but also of artist’s brush.

Yet it is “For Abai and Togshan,” which takes up Side A of the original vinyl, in which the farthest reach of this interior song takes physical form. Three dilrubas (bowed lap instruments from northern India) open in drone, wavering like bodies once lost in time but only now finding each other, piece by sunlit piece. Three soon give way to five, joined by four Spanish guitars, whose harmonic infusions fade in rose tones of complexion. The atmosphere is as much introspective as it is joyous, and finds in the solitary center a peace immune to corruption of shadow. The dilruba’s sympathetic overtones begin as if leaving, dropping cartographic messages as breadcrumbs into sundown.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 9. June 2011, 0:17

Stephan Micus / Listen To The Rain

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
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Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s


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Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.33 | 7:27.50 | 33 | 33607
2 | 7:28.08 | 6:59.50 | 33608 | 65082
3 | 14:27.58 | 8:51.50 | 65083 | 104957
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Peak level 52.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 22EA364F
Copy CRC 22EA364F
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\04 - For Abai And Togshan.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:13.12

Peak level 73.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6A4E3760
Copy CRC 6A4E3760
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK


None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

No errors occurred

End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-11 20:15:08

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Listen To The Rain
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR13 -2.45 dB -20.69 dB 7:28 01-Dancing With The Morning
DR17 -0.64 dB -23.26 dB 7:00 02-Listen To The Rain
DR14 -5.56 dB -26.28 dB 8:52 03-White Paint On Silver Wood
DR10 -2.66 dB -17.93 dB 20:05 04-For Abai And Togshan
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 4
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 643 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

East Of The Night, released in 1985, is one of Micus’s most melodic albums. Its two long tracks epitomize, ever so humbly, the dictum of less is more. The title piece, a conversation for 10-string guitar (an instrument of his own design) and shakuhachi, feels like a dialogue between master and disciple. Micus’s guitar combines the reediness of a lute with the subtle ferocity of a koto, making it a natural partner to the shakuhachi’s dawning breath. Each pluck of a string works the upholstery of the sky until a surface of untreated wood is revealed behind it. Details of handiwork once obscured by finery and ornament now become naked art. With the softness of a windblown curtain, the plectrum moves from foreground to background before the shakuhachi takes on a Milky Way texture in a suite of thrumming stardust. The flute fragments, multiplies, and ends the set’s first half on a congregational sigh.

“For Nobuko” is dedicated to Micus’s wife, recipient of this powerfully intimate solo for another custom instrument: the 14-string guitar. Its flowerbed extends far beyond the window box and trails vines from one domicile to another, stretching across vast plains of tundra toward immaculate love. It encompasses the dedication of one human being, whose balance is achievable only by offering himself up to another’s fundament, into which the listener’s own messages might also be divined.

Like two vapor trails, Listen to the Rain and East Of The Night mark their respective paths of motion by holding relatively still against the blue. One is the parallel of the other, never intersecting except by the illusion of perspective. Together, they are further significant for easing the JAPO sub-label’s 14-year flight in for a landing, thus ending one fantastic voyage by barely beginning another.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

On this recording, from 1985, multi-instrumentalist Stephan Micus takes his listeners on a journey guided mainly by his incredible playing on a guitar that he disgned, custom-built by master luthier Manuel Diaz of Granada, Spain. It is a unique instrument that allows the player to customize the string array to suit his mood and the piece to be performed.

On this outing, Micus fits it with 10 single-course strings for the first half of the album, the title track 'East of the night'. He accompanies his guitar on this piece with two groups of shakuhaci (the Japanese bamboo flute used by Zen monks in meditation), a pair and a group of four. The effect is simply beautiful – the guitar is used as a base for the gentle, soaring melodies carried by the shakuhachi, making the piece a transporting tribute to the dawn (as another reviewer astutely related the title).

The second piece, 'For Nobuko' (Stephan's wife), is a solo work for the guitar, this time utilizing fourteen strings – 6 double-courses and two individual bass strings. He takes the piece – and the listener – through several meditative sections, expertly laying both a rhythmical and melodic foundation on which he builds the main voice of the piece. The unique guitar design allows his artistic vision to flow into his execution with a freedom that six strings would not allow. Listening to this piece, it's sometimes hard to imagine that he's playing it alone – but he never resorts to pyrotechnics, allowing the deceptively simple beauty of the music to present itself uncluttered.

Micus may employ fewer instruments on this album than on his other recordings, but the effect is equally stunning. It's a shame most outlets file his music away in the 'new age' bin – it's an injustice that, unfortunately, might keep many potential listeners from discovering his work.

Review by Larry L. Looney, Amazon.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 23:23

Stephan Micus / East of the Night

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.33 | 25:26.25 | 33 | 114507
2 | 25:26.58 | 22:06.00 | 114508 | 213957


Track 1

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\01 - East Of The Night.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.33

Peak level 81.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6106E099
Copy CRC 6106E099
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 12) [95717F65], AccurateRip returned [C0258ED2]
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\02 - For Nobuko.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:03.13

Peak level 71.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B4EA2F87
Copy CRC B4EA2F87
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 12) [AED9FB24], AccurateRip returned [D4CEF69A]
Copy OK


No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

No errors occurred

End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-11 20:29:41

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / East of the Night
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR16 -1.76 dB -25.11 dB 25:26 01-East Of The Night
DR18 -2.97 dB -27.36 dB 22:06 02-For Nobuko
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 2
Official DR value: DR17

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 381 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Ocean is a set of acoustic ambient performances from Stephan Micus. He uses exotic instruments and techniques that give this disc electronic timbre. He combines hammered dulcimers, sho, a shakuhachi, a ney, zithers, and vocals in a swirling sound design that absolutely shimmers. The natural sonorities of these devices create vast atmospheres with organic timbres. The soundscapes penetrate and enhance brainwave activity. This great CD will appeal to fans of Robert Rich, Klaus Wiese, and Riley Lee.

Review by Jim Brenholts, Allmusic.com

Stephan Micus is more than the sum of his parts. The German-born multi-instrumentalist has done that rare thing: absorbed rather than pilfered a wealth of musical traditions and means and molded from them an entity all its own. As one of his earlier recordings for ECM, Ocean is a tinted window into an artistry of full-blown brilliance. Part I opens with his unaffected, wordless incantation before opening into a flower of hammered dulcimers. As the mournful cries of the nay replace his voice, it is as if the bodily has become breath incarnate, airing out its gentle patchwork of sound in a breezy sky, while meditations rise like pedestals beneath souls. The shō (Japanese mouth organ) opens Part II, treading its feet upon cloud, every step forward an exhalation, every step backward an inhalation, such that one remains poised on the brink of falling. From this congregation of threads arises a shakuhachi, unspooling in reverse, its fatigued song but a dream on a wistful day. Zithers enter in with their skittering rhythms, fluttering like the wings of some vast diurnal insect whose wing covers are its feet, and for whom landing is but a memory of a past in which humans never spoke. In the opening dulcimer meditation of Part III, we feel the kinship into which Micus so profoundly invites us, a promise of stillness in its embrace. The shakuhachi whispers its secrets across the waters, ending in a delicate waterfall, a lifetime’s worth of tears compressed into a single fade and pooled in the cupped hands of silence. Part IV ends (or does it begin?) with a moving shō solo, which turns like a crystal spun from Philip Glass-like filaments and melted by body heat into a fluted garden, churning with the song of every earthworm below.

Micus lets unfold a territory so personal that it becomes selfless, somehow unmarked the human elements of its creation. In his playing, names, labels, and covers, even personages and politics, cease to matter. The only restriction is its very lack. Such music goes beyond the pathos of meditational action, looking into the soul of stillness, where only music can express that which all the languages of the world, lost and extant alike, never could. Their cage is not one that surrounds us but one we surround with the promise of creation, waiting with closed eyes and open hearts.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 22:47

Stephan Micus / Ocean

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.32 | 8:05.48 | 32 | 36454
2 | 8:06.05 | 19:53.45 | 36455 | 125974
3 | 27:59.50 | 15:53.00 | 125975 | 197449
4 | 43:52.50 | 7:13.17 | 197450 | 229941


Track 1

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\01 - Ocean- Part I - Voice, 6 Hammered Dulcimers, Nay.wav

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Peak level 59.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A59EB6F4
Copy CRC A59EB6F4
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 8) [D97CEAFA], AccurateRip returned [D5470F4C]
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\02 - Ocean- Part II - 4 Sho, Shakuhachi, 3 Bavarian Zithers, 2 Hammered Dulcimers.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:07.45

Peak level 92.1 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A2147C4B
Copy CRC A2147C4B
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 8) [F945E786], AccurateRip returned [CD87C31C]
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\03 - Ocean- Part III - 3 Hammered Dulcimers, Shakuhachi.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:33.00

Peak level 70.3 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 02198B03
Copy CRC 02198B03
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 8) [3A1ECC7C], AccurateRip returned [0D2CE17A]
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\04 - Ocean- Part IV - Sho Solo.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:06.08

Peak level 24.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 71D47812
Copy CRC 71D47812
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 8) [1FACBB85], AccurateRip returned [C3EB707B]
Copy OK


No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

No errors occurred

End of status report

[CUETools log; Date: 23.04.2016 22:40:10; Version: 2.1.4]
Pregap length 00:00:32.
[CTDB TOCID: x5CDBT9lvlyMpJ1gB9D2px3AVlg-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
2 | (11/12) Accurately ripped, or (1/12) differs in 1 samples @08:21:20
3 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
4 | (11/12) Accurately ripped, or (1/12) differs in 7 samples @00:01:73-00:01:74
[AccurateRip ID: 0009001e-00247969-350bf904] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [d97ceafa|94a2fede] (02+03/28) Accurately ripped
02 [f945e786|a0edde12] (02+03/27) Accurately ripped
03 [3a1ecc7c|50fc9f22] (02+03/28) Accurately ripped
04 [1facbb85|bcb03e30] (02+03/28) Accurately ripped
Offsetted by 1331:
01 [6c9dfdcb] (03/28) Accurately ripped
02 [c14f4fc9] (02/27) Accurately ripped
03 [6df67a93] (03/28) Accurately ripped
04 [018eb7f8] (03/28) Accurately ripped
Offsetted by 2678:
01 [d5470f4c] (08/28) Accurately ripped
02 [cd87c31c] (08/27) Accurately ripped
03 [0d2ce17a] (08/28) Accurately ripped
04 [c3eb707b] (08/28) Accurately ripped

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 92,1 [A74107E5] [4D57E75D]
01 59,3 [A59EB6F4] [5C44D4AF] CRC32
02 92,1 [A2147C4B] [705495B9] CRC32
03 70,3 [02198B03] [F3306D2E] CRC32
04 24,7 [71D47812] [3CECD11F] CRC32

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-11 20:42:30

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Ocean
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 -4.53 dB -19.28 dB 8:06 01-Ocean: Part I - Voice, 6 Hammered Dulcimers, Nay
DR13 -0.71 dB -20.57 dB 19:54 02-Ocean: Part II - 4 Sho, Shakuhachi, 3 Bavarian Zithers, 2 Hammered Dulcimers
DR12 -3.05 dB -22.14 dB 15:53 03-Ocean: Part III - 3 Hammered Dulcimers, Shakuhachi
DR13 -12.11 dB -29.56 dB 7:13 04-Ocean: Part IV - Sho Solo
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 4
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 565 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Continuing his musical quest across countries and cultures, Stephan Micus visits the Cathedral of Ulm, where Elmar Daucher has been sculpting and carving rocks of granite, marble, and basalt specifically for their acoustic potential. Such a curiosity, where Micus is involved, usually results in an album. The Music of Stones is indeed a curious and deep meditation – a spotlight on the instruments as much as the music. It follows a formula similar to his album Twilight Fields, where tuned clay pots were the centerpiece. "Part 1" ebbs to life with a duet between one of these mythical stones that lays a rich harmonic drone for Micus to solo over with his staple instrument, the shakuhachi. "Part 2" shows off more percussive qualities by having two players with mallets on a single stone, though the novelty of it wears thin and becomes the one passage that breaks the spell. A tin whistle flutters around three stone chimes for "Part 3," and the harmonics attained in this and in "Part 4" sound like a Gamelan of gongs, bowls, kalimbas, mbiras…anything but the Swedish black granite actually responsible. There were no overdubs on the album, so the occasional church bells are heard far off in the background to provide an additional element of unscripted ambience. "Part 6" is enchanting in this regard, along with being the only track to feature vocals (from fellow "rocker" Gunther Federer). It makes a fitting lullaby of prayer to close out the album. Like most Stephan Micus albums, this is not world music, but certainly music from some foreign place within this world. You still can't get blood from a stone, but Daucher and Micus can certainly get life out of one.

Review by Glenn Swan, Allmusic.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 16:22

Stephan Micus / The Music Of Stones

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.33 | 13:27.52 | 33 | 60609
2 | 13:28.10 | 5:24.10 | 60610 | 84919
3 | 18:52.20 | 5:20.13 | 84920 | 108932
4 | 24:12.33 | 11:45.00 | 108933 | 161807
5 | 35:57.33 | 6:22.42 | 161808 | 190499
6 | 42:20.00 | 8:46.33 | 190500 | 229982


Track 1

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\01 - Part 1- Resonating Stone, Shakuhachi.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.33

Peak level 59.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 35C38F62
Copy CRC 35C38F62
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [8058B6D4]
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\02 - Part 2- 1 Resonating Stone, Two Players.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.52

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 9841124D
Copy CRC 9841124D
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [46FB7D35]
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\03 - Part 3- Tin Whistle, 3 Stone Chimes.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.12

Peak level 19.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 786FADE0
Copy CRC 786FADE0
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [8062D01E]
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\04 - Part 4- Solo For 3 Resonating Stones.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:17.00

Peak level 85.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 55F93E26
Copy CRC 55F93E26
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [B457E3FD]
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\05 - Part 5- Shakuhachi Solo.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:07.00

Peak level 45.6 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 5EB39618
Copy CRC 5EB39618
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [CBFA2A1E]
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Rutracker_Seeds\06 - Part 6- 4 Resonating Stones, Voice.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.42

Peak level 44.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A550F32C
Copy CRC A550F32C
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [245F58B6]
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-11 20:49:33

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / The Music Of Stones
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -4.55 dB -21.52 dB 13:28 01-Part 1: Resonating Stone, Shakuhachi
DR19 0.00 dB -23.73 dB 5:24 02-Part 2: 1 Resonating Stone, Two Players
DR10 -14.28 dB -28.10 dB 5:20 03-Part 3: Tin Whistle, 3 Stone Chimes
DR20 -1.32 dB -28.45 dB 11:45 04-Part 4: Solo For 3 Resonating Stones
DR11 -6.82 dB -23.77 dB 6:23 05-Part 5: Shakuhachi Solo
DR16 -7.12 dB -25.52 dB 8:46 06-Part 6: 4 Resonating Stones, Voice
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 6
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 509 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

German multi-instrumentalist Stephan Micus was making his own rather idiosyncratic version of world music years before it became fashionable to do so. Micus specializes in taking ethnic instruments from all over the planet and using them, in ways that transcend their traditional contexts, to play his own moody and somewhat austere compositions. On Darkness and Light Micus makes extensive use of the dilruba, a four-stringed bowed Indian instrument that sounds somewhat like a nasal cello which has 24 sympathetic strings that set up a hypnotic drone effect behind the haunting melodies. Also featured are the classical Spanish guitar, the Balinese suling flute, an Irish tin whistle, the sho (a Japanese bamboo mouth-organ), the kortholt (a German renaissance reed instrument), various gongs, and the remarkable ki un ki, a six-foot-long Siberian cane trumpet (pictured on the cover), whose spirited blasts are created by inhaling rather than exhaling. Multi-tracking himself to create his own global orchestra, Micus freely mixes these diverse instruments in ways that draw out their universal and timeless qualities. This slow, patient, spacious music reaches down into the depths of the listener's consciousness to conjure up its images of Darkness and Light.

Review by Allmusic.com

Listening to a Stephan Micus album is always like taking a journey through darkness and light, and so it is no wonder that his fourth album for ECM should bear that very title. The sarangi-like tones of the dilrubi of Part 1 open up a pathway that is indeed by turns bright and shaded. The path is circular, leading forever back to where it began, as if to say, “Birth and death issue from the same step.” From this mouth agape we get the insular sutras of guitar. Its chain of arpeggios carries in its arms a bouquet of memories and rests it in the crook of a tree, where it plays for the sake of Nature. From that whispered cove arises a mermaid holding a bow at the edge of a string. With every splitting of voice we are veiled in deeper solitude. Mournful songs shape a still heart, hanging on to certain threads longer than others. The guitar helps us to nourish ourselves with what remains in its chamber, stenciling the periphery with every pluck and unearthing in the afterlife all that is yet to come. Even in the absence of a bow, we feel our voices continuing to spin novel draws in the ether.

Part 2 takes a rawer approach to the dilrubi, giving rise to the call of the ki un ki, the Siberian cane trumpet pictured on the album’s cover. Played by inhaling, it sounds like a combination between a Theremin, a split and blown grass blade, and an elephant calling out to the cosmos. Part 3 scrapes the edge of darkness on its climb toward a trembling song. A flute cries as if in dialogue, two lovers parted on either side of the Milky Way unifying at last in a hopeful vein, tracing light back to the nebula that birthed them both.

Darkness And Light is as fleeting as its message, transparent as water and betraying its presence only through reflections. Still, its elemental forces sweep us away in the depth of Micus’s human touch, such that when they stop, one feels they might linger forever.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMReviews.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 15:48

Stephan Micus / Darkness And Light

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.40 | 29:54.42 | 40 | 134631
2 | 29:55.07 | 10:25.38 | 134632 | 181544
3 | 40:20.45 | 13:10.62 | 181545 | 240856


Track 1

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\_Seeds\01 - Part 1.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.40

Peak level 97.5 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 763515F0
Copy CRC 763515F0
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [BD98CF4B]
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\_Seeds\02 - Part 2.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:10.50

Peak level 61.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FB5D0901
Copy CRC FB5D0901
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [8B57B826]
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\_Seeds\03 - Part 3.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:09.60

Peak level 87.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0844B961
Copy CRC 0844B961
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [021EC608]
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-06-16 01:55:39

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Darkness And Light
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR15 -0.21 dB -22.84 dB 29:55 01-Part 1
DR13 -4.20 dB -20.78 dB 10:26 02-Part 2
DR13 -1.14 dB -19.73 dB 13:11 03-Part 3
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 3
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 597 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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Stephan Micus’s fifth album for ECM is a lullaby. I know nothing of its origins, but I would be surprised if he hadn’t just become a father before recording it, so freshly paternal are its meditations. This time, Micus turns the kaleidoscope of his endless talent to reveal steel drums as the sound color of the moment. These provide a resonant, gamelan-like undercurrent throughout and become more biologically attuned as they sing beneath his mallets. Yet it is his actual voice that awakens the heart in “Nomad Song,” scooping earth in such a way that all life falls through its fingers unharmed, leaving only a heap of unconditional love. The newness of creation abounds in “Yuko’s Eyes,” in which Micus sings now through a bowed dilruba, turning infancy inside out to reveal a future of hope and dreams fulfilled. “Young Moon” pairs that constant steel drum with suling (an Indonesian bamboo flute) and kortholt (a capped reed instrument popular during the Renaissance) for a softly glittering wave of light, given corporeal shape through open-throated calls. The title track welcomes ney, through it gilding the album’s aquatic themes with moonlight. It grows a feather for every breath that falls, as if reaching out to any and all children who slumber in fear and security alike. From these Micus spins a wealth of comfort, trembling to the tune of his heartbeat. There is perpetuity in this dream, from which one is born and to which one returns when circadian rhythms have become a thread of silence. “Morgenstern” stretches a sky bridge from cloud to cloud with steel-drummed steps, while “Equinox” lives in penumbral shadow, crowning a procession of closed-mouthed reverence. Each pair of hands offers a flower to “Desert Poem.” Eyes shielded by sleep, Micus dips his toes in the Milky Way’s waters and dries himself against a tree that grows alone, save for the fallen seed who awaits for the light of dawn to bless it with the kiss of tomorrow.

This music sounds in those hushed spaces where the universe inhales, the sound that keeps all celestial bodies spinning. Like the language in which Micus sings, its words convey meaning to a part of us deep and out of grasp. But for the duration of an album, at least, we can feel it as presently as the rain on our faces.

Review by Larry L. Looney

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 15:21

Stephan Micus / To The Evening Child

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-11 20:49:58

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / To The Evening Child
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR13 -12.58 dB -30.58 dB 5:56 02-Yoko's Eyes
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================================================================================

If true meditation is not a centering but a shedding of the self into a plane where the ego no longer speaks under the illusion of a proper name, then Stephan Micus has walked some of the most meditative paths on disc. Inspired by a visit to the holy Greek mountain of Athos, his album of the same name bears traces of just such a traveler, one whose artistry sees medium and message as one. Those looking for anything close to the Byzantine chant that surely nourished his ears during this pilgrimage may feel disappointed. Then again, the Micus experience has never been about total re-creation, but rather about the ways in which the lens of his soul refracts all it comes in contact with during its itinerancy.

Athos takes a diurnal structure, with days marked by flutes of varying origins and nights woven in 22-part choruses, all sung by a multi-tracked Micus. The latter serve as touchstones in the fullness of his narrative, which takes its histrionic steps in voices mineral, unaffected, spun from the wood, clay, and strings of another time and place. In these drones is where the true indeterminacy of life takes shape, shifting from circle to ellipse and back again like a full moon stared at for too long. “The First Day,” a shakuhachi solo, rests on a sibilant edge and awakens like an animal from winter slumber, even as it cranes its neck, heron-like, back toward memory, now hazed by the passage of the seasons. “The Second Day” hangs a suling (Indonesian bamboo flute) above a garden of flowerpots. And in “The Third Day” Micus offers a ney solo, wavering like a reflection across molten rock and shaped by the lips of a divine glassblower who fashions from it a teardrop in the cosmos, forever crystalline and unshattered. Such music turns the sun inside out and shows us that its heart is nothing but shadow, for otherwise it would never know the generative power of fire.

This cosmic passage is bookended by a prologue and epilogue. “On The Way” pairs cascades of Bavarian zither with the tinny laments of sattar (long-necked bowed instrument of the Uyghur people). In its depths we weep at the fallacy of what we have created, but know that within the distorted memories of those tears lies something far more meaningful: constant change. This and more we hear in these moments, in the total dedication that engenders them. “On The Way Back” pulls those evening voices from the clothing of their afterlife, vibrating like a reed in the core of something devoid of song.

Athos is the diary of a sacred space whose pages are born in the siren that calls everyone into the stillness of eternity. It tugs your heart until it merges with Micus’s own, so attuned is his playing to the spirit of all that moves us to listen. He reaches through the veil of distance holding a broken watch, asking us to breathe time back into its silent circle.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 12:48

Stephan Micus / Athos

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-12 04:23:02

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Athos
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR15 -7.71 dB -27.71 dB 4:57 01-On The Way
DR12 -1.84 dB -19.00 dB 5:44 02-The First Night
DR10 -9.60 dB -26.07 dB 6:47 03-The First Day
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DR9 -8.68 dB -24.33 dB 6:06 07-The Third Day
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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 8
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================================================================================

Stephan Micus is an eclectic performer. He builds esoteric walls of sound with offbeat ethnic instruments and devices. The Garden of Mirrors is a set of gentle pieces constructed largely around acoustic sounds and simple percussion. Wordless chants carry the strange atmospheres to the edges of reality. At those distant points Micus shines. Such is the stature of an experimental artist. Just when Micus seems to be as far out as he can go, he stretches the limits some more. These delightful soundscapes waver between world fusion and avant-garde. There is not a lot of dissonance. This disc will appeal to fans of Terry Riley, Alvin Curran, Polly Moller, and Jocelyn Pook.

Review by Jim Brenholts, Allmusic.com

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Stephan Micus is a unique explorer of sonorities, wandering the world to study instruments from a host of heritages. His work is marked by a simultaneous interest in the instruments' distinctive properties and original uses and his own vision. For the nine-part Garden of Mirrors, Micus has added to his instrumental palette with bolombatto and sinding, two lower-register West African harps with attached tin rattles. These are used here to accompany vocals or are joined in various configurations with a complement of ethnic flutes–including Japanese shakuhachi, Balinese suling, Egyptian nay, and an Irish tin whistle–as well as steel drums, and Micus's voice is overdubbed to a 20-member chorale on three tracks. The results are often hypnotic, combining hyper-resonant instruments with static five-tone scales and chanted micro-melodies.

On "Passing Cloud," the shakuhachi wafts over a slowly pulsing field of four steel drums and two sinding, while "Gates of Fire" uses bowed sinding to add introductory menace to a stately processional orchestra of percussion, steel drums, and a dozen overdubs of the various flutes. On "Flowers in Chaos," a single high-pitched suling expands to 22, arriving like a flock of exotic birds. It's not just the cross-cultural content of these instruments that makes the music distinctive. Their sounds are close to nature, whether evoking birds or rivers, wind or rain. Micus's wordless singing never mimics a single culture; the pieces are as apt to suggest Native American music as the South African townships or India. In Micus's meditations, technology can turn the one voice into many, or merge diverse elements into a united dreamscape.

Review by Stuart Broomer

Just as one look at the many instruments Stephan Micus plays is sure to impress, so too does one experience of what he produces with them dispel arbitrary interest in those means. Music flows from his fingertips in such an organic way that the source catches light in all of us. Nothing feels out of place. It’s worth noting, however, that The Garden Of Mirrors makes especial use of that most intuitive instrument of all: the human voice. Like water in sunset, Micus’s wordless songs collect light-years of travel along the glittering surface of their multiplication. Twenty such voices manifest themselves first in “Earth.” Accompanied by the bolombatto, an African gut-stringed harp, this world traveler speaks to the very marrow of life. A binary star leaves his lips, the being to our nonbeing. These twins become triplets, and so forth, until the galaxy is alive in a choir whose rhythms are the stuff that binds. “Violeta” and “Night Circles” exchange the bolombatto for its hemp-stringed cousin, the sinding, melting into a future where hope may breathe like an autumnal wind through leaves. Dry and crackling fields shape syllables with the ferocity of a linguist. Vocal flocks outline the sky in chalk, coloring it in like the white of a giant eye. Veins become songs. These become the world. “Passing Cloud” bands steel drums, two sinding, and shakuhachi for a sound at once vapor-like and heavy as soil. Those who are content see in it animals, trees, and faces, while others see sighs, depressions, and hardships. For “Flowers In Chaos” we get a coterie of 22 suling (Indonesian bamboo ring flutes), dispelling that very cloud with tales of earthly things. “In The High Valleys” is the album’s most insightful contemplation. In its intimate pairing of sinding and voice, it moves, to reference an album title of the Alial Straa, in a lumbering intransitive dream, and would seem to invoke the origin myth of the jazz bass. “Gates Of Fire” marks its passage with ashen footprints, bringing atonement in circular motions, each a brand on the side of a mountain. “Mad Bird” is a living solo for Irish tin whistle that traverses its own boundaries in search of landing, for life on the wing desires stillness. This singles out the final “Words Of Truth,” where the breath of life courses through six shakuhachi in self-reflective bliss. It is the sailor and his reflection, the storm and its rainbow, caressing the shores of a fading continent, of which we are the only inhabitants left standing.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 12:00

Stephan Micus / The Garden Of Mirrors

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
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Read offset correction : 48
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Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
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Gap handling : Appended to previous track

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End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-12 04:23:17

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / The Garden Of Mirrors
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 0.00 dB -15.16 dB 6:30 01-Part 1: Earth
DR11 -2.66 dB -16.47 dB 5:17 02-Part 2: Passing Cloud
DR12 -0.14 dB -15.54 dB 6:49 03-Part 3: Violeta
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================================================================================

Desert Poems both consolidates and expands Stephan Micus's solo quest to fashion a music of archetypal, world-ranging import: music–often modal in nature–which would be both as old as the proverbial hills, yet as fresh as tomorrow. If you've followed this multi-instrumentalist's musical odyssey of the past 30-or-so years (this is something like his 15th solo project) you probably won't need any encouragement to buy an album that finds Micus's mastery of such instruments as the sarangi, nay, shakahuchi, steel drum and humble flower pot enhanced by a range of solo and polyphonic vocals. His pan-global sources are filtered to create a somewhat sombre, strongly devotional sense of the deeper rhythms of life to which music may awaken us. Apart from the vocalising on pieces like "Contessa Entellina", standout tracks include the solo shakuhachi feature "First Snow" and an instrumental reworking of "Shen Khar Venakhi", a masterpiece of old Georgian polyphony.

Review by Michael Tucker

It is true that, in world music circles, a kind of incipient racism can surface regarding white musicians who venture into other cultures. Some crossover experiments are dubious and dilute their sources, to be sure, but there are plenty of worthy aesthetics stitched from pan-ethnic influences, as well. Take the case of Stephan Micus, a multi-instrumentalist, and multicultural sound poet who has been creating entrancing musical landscapes for many years, leading up to his 15th album on ECM, Desert Poems. Micus is in a virtually unique position, concocting meditative music through tasteful use of overdubbing. For this project, the instrument list includes sarangi, kalimba, nay, shakuhachi (as on the meltingly beautiful solo piece, “First Show”) and the voice, often stacked in layers. As usual, Micus composed all the tracks except for a rare “Shen Khar Venakhi,” a traditional Georgian choral, but here realized using multiple tracks of dilruba and sattarr-bowed instruments from India and Turkey, respectively-to create a resonant swirl of sound. Micus has mined ideas from around the world, but developed a quietly compelling musical world of his own.

Review by Josef Woodard, JazzTimes.com

On Desert Poems, Stephan Micus’s 15th solo excursion, the intrepid musical sojourner introduces a few new actors to his already extensive roster of instruments: the doussn’gouni (West African harp), kalimba (Tanzanian thumb piano), and dondon (Ghanaian talking drum). These he nestles among more familiar veterans: his modified 10-string sarangi, dilruba (another bowed instrument from India), ney, and sattar (an upright Uighur fiddle). As always, Micus is attentive to the Janus nature of the instruments he touches. On the one hand each has a history, while on the other it enables new paths of expression. He embraces both as equals.

Characteristic histrionics speak of a thousand other worlds in “The Horses of Nizami” (for sarangi, 5 dondon, and 23 voices) and in “Mikhail’s Dream” (2 kalimba, voice, sinding, 2 steel drums, percussion). In these multi-tracked biospheres, a self divided becomes a self magnified and therefore needs its own language to breathe properly. Indeed, at Micus’s touch the sarangi body becomes a wooden lung through which a chanting chorus activates its array of sympathetic strings. Buzzing kalimba then glow with firefly steps, a ladder of light into the rising dune heat. Amid this flowering conference of souls, a single voice rises into, even as it drops down from, the ether and places its song on a fulcrum of memory and future paths.

The blood of this album’s earthly incarnation is purified by “Adela” (for 22 dilruba), for it speaks of a mirroring heaven in which all that has come to pass awakens to the possibility of a self-aware now. These sounds take human shape: a warrior walking upside down, feet treading sky, his horse long dead behind him, turned to cloud and dropping rain somewhere on more fertile land. With a grating pulse, he marks his footfalls by way of a dotted moon. By nightfall, only his afterimages remain, thrumming in the counterpart of “Shen Khar Venakhi” (6 dilruba, 6 sattar), a 13th-century choral piece from Georgia which Micus arranges in wordless tonsure.

“Thirteen Eagles” (doussn’gouni, 20 ney) and “For Yuko” (2 flowerpots, 8 voices, shakuhachi) share another soul. One is a blissful trek over land and under emotion that focuses purely on movement and shape, ney pleated many times over like feathers and free as heroines of the open sky. The other bears dedication to the performer’s daughter in a galaxy of nascent voices, hurtling through space along a trajectory of sentience and love.

If these are the internal organs, three solo tracks comprise the external features. The eyes flicker into being by way of “First Snow.” Although not a title one might expect amid all this warmth, the continuity is not lost. Its lone shakuhachi is an arid instrument. Cored and lacquered, it rasps like wind through wheat and digs through the soil with deeply grained fingertips. Its song dreams of water, and like the snow remains dry until the warmth of sun or living touch renders it fleeting. Lips speak in “Contessa Entelina,” a voice solo in English that is named for, and inspired by, a village Micus encountered while riding through the Sicilian countryside, and tells the story of a countess who provided solace to Albanian immigrants some centuries ago. This intimate portrait folds perfect divinity into the imperfect cage of human language and means. Ears listen in “Night,” a far-reaching doussn’gouni reflection that bears gifts from the heavens to the caverns.

Seemingly enamored with the same consuming silence of the desert that captured the heart of writer Paul Bowles, Micus translates the hidden energies of landscape into a form that escapes all measure of mortal grasp. World music? Perhaps. But not entirely of this one.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMReviews.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 11:29

Stephan Micus / Desert poems

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-07-12 03:59:51

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Desert poems
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 0.00 dB -15.41 dB 3:41 01-The Horses of Nizami (Sarangi, 5 dondon, 23 voices)
DR10 0.00 dB -14.16 dB 5:51 02-Adela (22 dilruba)
DR14 -3.63 dB -22.92 dB 2:54 03-Night (Doussn' gouni solo)
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DR13 -2.53 dB -24.14 dB 4:35 07-Contessa Entellina (Voice solo)
DR13 -4.96 dB -22.30 dB 2:52 08-Shen Khar Venakhi (6 dilruba, 6 sattar)
DR13 -0.71 dB -20.25 dB 8:17 09-For Yuko (2 flowerpots, 8 voices, shakuhachi)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 9
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================================================================================

Stephan Micus is a composer who lives on the island of Mallorca and is a compulsive collector of oddball musical instruments. An acoustic music purist, Micus generates unusual, almost electronic-sounding textures from his collection of instruments through multi-tracking, but does not utilize anything electronic to generate the sounds. On Life, Micus plays such instruments as the bagana, tin whistle, various kinds of gongs, sho, zithers, and Thai singing bowls, and uses recording techniques to build the multifarious parts played into a contiguous whole. The result is a very colorful blend of peculiar tones, gestures, and voicings. Although Micus seems to release a new ECM album almost every other month, Life is the result of three years of careful planning and labor, and Micus claims that the process of overdubbing is far more complex on this album than any other that he has done.

Life is based on a Zen "Koan," a short text that is like a cross between a lesson and a prayer. Micus sings the text in long, Japanese phrases, occasionally shouting, humming, or making other non-verbal vocal sounds to match with the music. As the piece unfolds, one can go either way with Life; at times it seemed a little over the top dramatically, and at others a little too sweet and pretty. Once it is over, however, one feels rewarded as the total effect of Life sticks together in an almost cinematic way that tells a clear story. Whether or not one finds the rarified world of Stephan Micus appealing, Life is real music and an achievement to be proud of.

Review by Uncle Dave Lewis, Allmusic.com

German composer Stephan Micus has spent decades traveling the world in search of new music, as much figuratively as literally, and the results of his very serious globe-trotting experiences have been documented on sixteen ECM albums, the latest being Life. He brings together a large collection of instruments from Africa, Asia, and Europe for this particular journey, but he makes use of them in very idiosyncratic ways, preferring to explore sonorities in a purist fashion rather than replicate the traditional modes of play or musical styles from their cultures of origin. By the use of extensive overdubs he creates thickly textured pieces that resonate and reverberate openly and freely.

Whatever you may argue about music needing context in order to be properly appreciated, Life really requires some study of Micus' background and master plan. It's based around a koan (a Zen Buddhist riddle) about the essence of life, and rather than defeat that story by reductionist logic, I'll just refer you to the informative liner notes for the complete picture. The koan unfolds in ten parts, each performed by Micus alone on up to 20 overdubbed instruments (including most frequently, by number anyway, his own warm but otherwise neutral voice, which closes the suite in solitude). Each part has its own signature sound and texture, and that's important in conveying the emotional overtones appropriate to the ongoing stages in the koan's development.

One has to wonder what sort of meditation was required for Micus to put this recording together over the course of four years in his studio on Mallorca. Among the bagana (Ethiopian lyre), gongs, sho (Japanese "mouth organ"), nay (Egyptian reed flute), dondon (Ghanaian "talking drum"), and so forth he constructs discrete layers that progress very gradually and deliberately. Smooth, flowing melodies are the norm, and percussion is used as a way of coloring the music rather than marking time.

Listeners who fear the sort of glacial, self-referential displays of torpitude that characterize the global New Age movement will find Life a refreshing contrast. It's meditative but not somnolent, questioning without obtuseness, and deeply respectful of the tonal colors of the sound spectrum. Not for everyone, that's for sure, but I for one learned from listening and considering the messages this record conveys.

Review by Nils Jacobson, Allaboutjazz.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 1:57

Micus, Stephan / Life

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8 | 40:29.48 | 4:10.23 | 182223 | 200995
9 | 44:39.71 | 4:36.68 | 200996 | 221763
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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-12 04:24:00

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Micus, Stephan / Life
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 0.00 dB -15.67 dB 14:27 01-Narration One and the Master's Question
DR9 -8.70 dB -26.59 dB 5:45 02-The Temple
DR12 -0.07 dB -17.81 dB 2:57 03-Narration Two
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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR11

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Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Stephan Micus' folk soundworld investigations have taken him all over the globe. He is a disciplined student of every musical instrument he encounters, and understands how to get what he needs out of them without comprising either the instrument's original purpose or history, or his own vision, and he lets the instruments (sometimes in strange combinations) speak for themselves from his inner well of inspiration and nearly egoless expression. For those interested in poetry, Micus does in his world of music what poet and translator Jerome Rothenberg (who has compiled countless important anthologies of poetic traditions from all over the modern and ancient world) does for the written and oral tradition in poetry: represents it for what it is and allows the reader/listener to experience it for themselves. The stark beauty of On the Wing is expressed by Micus using Middle Eastern and Asian instruments, from the Iraqi mudbedsh (a single reed instrument made from cane) to the long-necked and bowed Turkish sattar and the Egyptian nay. In addition, he uses the reed flute of the Balinese gamelan orchestras called the suling, the Japanese harmonica known as the sho, the double-reeded hné from Burma, the shakuhachi, sitar, the hang from the Caribbean (a new percussion instrument) and his own 14-string guitar that is able, in its various stringing formations, to create the tonalities of a sitar or other overtone instrument. The beautiful thing about On the Wing is the way Micus combines instruments, or uses them solo: his investigations never come off as academic. They are full of quiet soul and deep mysterious power. His pieces are in their own ways, songs more than improvisations, capable of being remembered after hearing them only once. His traditional excellence is everywhere here, but his lyrical sense is perhaps more defined and important than ever.

Review by Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com

Stephan Micus is a German-born multi-instrumentalist and inveterate ethnic musicologist. He currently resides in Majorca where, aside from the splendid climate, the airport is well-equipped and prepared to take the adventuresome traveler almost anywhere at any time. Micus utilizes the latter frequently in planning his musical landscapes.

Micus has traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe and, in doing so, has accumulated an arsenal of exotic instruments. He does not, however, seek to replicate the literal music tradition of a particular region. Rather, Micus absorbs the textures and ideas of the vernacular musical expression, and seeks to place the same within the context of his own unique improvising framework.

On the Wing is the first album in seventeen years where he does not utilize his voice. Micus' many instruments include, but are not limited to, the sattar (a long necked bowed instrument used by the Uigurs, a Turkman people from Western China), sho (a Japanese mouth organ consisting of seventeen reed pipes), suling (a hollow reed flute of the Balinese Gamelan orchestra), shakuhachi (a Japanese bamboo flute with five holes and no mouthpiece), classical and steel string guitars, sitar, and a bevy of Tibetan cymbals and gongs. That Micus is able to play each instrument is remarkable. That he successfully blends this panoply of diverse instruments into a series of multi-tracked coherent statements is, quite simply, stunning.

Where some selections are clearly informed by a far Eastern perspective, others contain a Middle Eastern sound. There is some Irish musical influence. The listener should not seek a clear musical foundation. Merely note the composition titles and, with your mind, imagine the tone poem that Micus has sketched for the audience.

The record is the type of production at which ECM excels, and which drives those listeners already critical of the label's aesthetic into fits. Is it jazz? Is it world music? Does it swing? Who knows and, quite frankly, who really cares. Micus' efforts of expressing himself within the vocabulary of an ethnic imperative are remarkable. Anouar Brahem, the Tunisian oud virtuoso, is another ECM stalwart who combines his instrument's eastern Middle Eastern textures and places them within the framework of his own extemporaneous exploration of improvisation. Brahem's ability to flirt with French Musette and Moorish influences, and back again, confounds some listeners, just as Micus' music almost surely will.

This record is, in short, a welcome addition to Micus' ECM discography. Those predisposed to think in terms of musical definitions and boundaries should listen attentively. One can learn how a musical mind travels, and is subsequently rewarded, when thoughts are not so limited.

Review by Eric R. Quick, All About Jazz

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2011, 4:43

Micus, Stephan / On the Wing

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Read mode : Secure
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Make use of C2 pointers : No

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Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
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Gap handling : Appended to previous track

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Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [C829C5E7]
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Track 3

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Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [AE69550D]
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Track 4

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Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [401C417F]
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Track 5

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\05 - The Bride.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [C0861CBC]
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Track 6

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Track 7

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Track 8

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\08 - The Gate.wav

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Track 9

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\09 - Turquoise Fields.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [FBAAE0AB]
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Track 10

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\10 - Morning Sky.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [FE00E344]
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All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-05-05 01:11:30

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Micus, Stephan / On the Wing
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 -10.60 dB -25.01 dB 3:27 01-On the Wing
DR13 -11.31 dB -28.78 dB 5:17 02-Winterlight
DR11 -15.76 dB -32.27 dB 3:41 03-Gazelle
DR11 -11.27 dB -26.97 dB 4:43 04-Blossoms in the Wind
DR10 -1.15 dB -15.31 dB 6:31 05-The Bride
DR10 -6.02 dB -21.79 dB 5:26 06-Ancient Trees
DR10 -12.70 dB -26.27 dB 5:14 07-In the Dancing Snow
DR16 -10.08 dB -31.76 dB 4:28 08-The Gate
DR11 -2.52 dB -17.83 dB 7:12 09-Turquoise Fields
DR11 -12.50 dB -26.81 dB 3:18 10-Morning Sky
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR11

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 598 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

At a time when, at least for First World residents, there seems no respite from the relentless, rapid pace of life, artists like Stephan Micus provide welcome clarity; proof that there are alternatives. Difficult though it may seem, when immersed in all the push-and-pull of day-to-day distractions, there is another way; it's just not necessarily an easy one. For nearly four decades, Micus has traveled the world, a student of culture and society…and the music that naturally evolves from the two. Acquiring and learning to use ethnic instruments from around the world—often taught to him in the remotest locales—for the past two decades, Micus has always, ultimately, returned home to the island of Majorca, off the coast of Spain, where he has honed his craft through an organic process of experimentation, recording and gradual shaping of music that truly transcends all cultural boundaries. Each of the eighteen albums he's released since 1977—first, on the JAPO subsidiary, and then on the main ECM label—has introduced at least one new instrument to his expanding array of flutes, reeds, percussion, stringed instruments…even stones, which he used to tremendous effect on the surprising The Music of Stones (1989).

For Bold as Light—Micus' nineteenth recording, and the first since 2008's Snow—the eternal and intrepid student introduces a number of instruments, including the raj nplaim, a free-reed bamboo pipe (where sound is produced as air flows past a vibrating reed) from Laos, and the Japanese nohkan flute, also made of bamboo. Micus doesn't, however, just acquire instruments from distant cultures, he has custom versions built, and so a number of modified raj nplaims—of varying lengths and, with additional holes augmenting the native instrument's five to allow for alternate tunings—provide the freedom to create virtual choirs, with six of them used on the meditative opening, "Rain," and eight on his haunting "The Child," where Micus' folkloric lyricism is given a gentle pulse through use of the sinding, a West African harp.

What's always been one of Micus' most compelling qualities is that, despite studying music from various cultures, when it comes to his own, the borders are entirely dissolved; the instruments used in pursuit of a kind of music freed from—but nevertheless all-inclusive of—the various places from which it comes. And for those who find it all too easy to assign labels like "new age" to Micus, such reductionist categorizing only diminishes the deeper meaning of his music.

This is music that feels as solitary as the process in which it's made—Micus alone in his MCM Studio, gradually shaping pieces over the course of months or, sometimes, years—speaking deeply of spirituality, meditation and the pursuit of a calm, personally fulfilling life. But equally—and, especially here, because of the album's general lack of percussion or rhythm-capable instruments—Bold as Light's overarching tranquility can, for those engaged in the hustle and bustle of modern life, become a welcoming, fifty-minute hiatus from reality, and a chance to consider that it truly needn't be that way.

Review by John Kelman, All About Jazz

Here it is, the dead of winter, and I am listening to Bold As Light, the nineteenth ECM release from renaissance man Stephan Micus. After a few days of heavy snow, the temperatures have risen and let slip a warmer precipitation. Ice melts in the downpour, and I find solace in this music, which works in similar intra-seasonal contrasts. Two transverse bamboo instruments form the audible crux of the sanctuaries therein: the Laotian raj naplaim and the Japanese nohkan. When multiplied, the former coalesces into a proto-harmonium of twirling skies, while the latter skates its wingtips along the clouds.

Like much of Micus’s later work, titles to individual pieces have again crept from the creative woodwork. Yet the music is so rich that one might just as well forego these sentimental tags and experience what they have to offer firsthand. And so, while the opening “Rain” might be a harbinger for the “Spring Dance” that follows, it is only through Micus’s profound playing that our spirits come into focus. “Flying Swans,” for instance, has not a feather in sight. Rather, Micus sings a different style of flight, the forest looming as high around us as the lake is deep, shielding a copse where voices gather to pay their respects to the wind. “Wide River” is barely distinguishable from what has come before, flutes winding themselves around a droning core like fibers to a tether that attaches every listener to a star. The clearest shadows come in the form of “Autumn Dance,” a beautiful and lilting shakuhachi solo falling like a leaf from the “Golden Ginkgo Tree” that follows. Dedicated to master teacher and maker Kono Gyokusui (1930-2008), that latter is easily one of the most enchanting improvisations Micus has ever recorded, and all the more so for being accompanied by the percussive rattle of a sinding (African harp).

Wood and flesh come together in “The Shrine.” Animated by a solemn congregation, it is a prayer unto itself. “Winter Dance” highlights the negative spaces in every snowflake, gaping like a mouth in a plant of infinite soliloquies, of which this is but one leaf. “The Child” would seem to be the recipient of every preceding color shift. Another awe-inspiring track, this one comes across as especially personal. We end in a bed of “Seven Roses,” blooming as if in the forgotten summer, and rocking on a seesaw of meditation and soaring dreams.

You can read more about the fascinating background to and instrumentation of Bold As Light here, but ultimately such explanations are, like the words you’ve just been reading, empty in the face of a music so full of life.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 24. February 2013, 23:07

Stephan Micus / Bold as Light

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H Adapter: 0 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 32 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 4:13.15 | 0 | 18989
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9 | 38:32.04 | 4:57.51 | 173404 | 195729
10 | 43:29.55 | 6:30.05 | 195730 | 224984


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Test CRC 01BA03EE
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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [C31122A6] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

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Test CRC A89D8FC6
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Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [2654C667] (AR v2)
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Track 3

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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [B8CB7333] (AR v2)
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Track 4

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\04 - Wide River.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [EE29002C] (AR v2)
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Track 5

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\05 - Autumn Dance.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [D25000F9] (AR v2)
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Track 6

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\06 - Golden Ginkgo Tree.wav

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Track 7

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Track 8

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\08 - Winter Dance.wav

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Track 9

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\09 - The Child.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 6) [5790CA13] (AR v2)
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Track 10

Filename C:\Users\sony\Music\Seeds\10 - Seven Roses.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [C2A3A333] (AR v2)
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All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum FCF821E515244B4596DE0543C9744DA0DC1EE74F9C0B336EF3830B6A4102F3FD ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-09-12 04:24:42

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Stephan Micus / Bold as Light
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR10 -7.50 dB -22.93 dB 4:13 01-Rain
DR11 -5.51 dB -23.43 dB 5:00 02-Spring Dance
DR12 -4.78 dB -22.21 dB 6:17 03-Flying Swans
DR10 -7.62 dB -23.78 dB 4:00 04-Wide River
DR9 -8.78 dB -25.54 dB 3:34 05-Autumn Dance
DR10 -5.79 dB -21.34 dB 5:44 06-Golden Ginkgo Tree
DR10 -4.72 dB -20.20 dB 4:50 07-The Shrine
DR9 -0.41 dB -17.93 dB 4:54 08-Winter Dance
DR12 -4.01 dB -19.10 dB 4:58 09-The Child
DR11 -2.87 dB -17.97 dB 6:30 10-Seven Roses
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR11

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 649 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================