Thunder

‘A Song for Thor’ that opens this album is a thunderous Thor de force. It features a four-metre long Tibetan trumpet, a dungchen, with deep drums and chiming bells. Of course Stephan Micus’ music is nothing like the growling trumpet sounds of Tibetan Buddhist ritual, but he creates lively horn calls multi-tracked three times and adds in the more piercing sound of the ki un ki, a Siberian stalk wind instrument. It's a glorious opening and this whole album is a tribute to nine thunder gods around the world.

This is Micus’ 25th album for ECM and coincides with his 70th birthday. Everything is multi-tracked by him on instruments he's collected on his intrepid travels. Other tracks are named after the Japanese god Raijin (rather more gentle), the Georgian Armazi (with long, bowed sarangi melodies), Yoruba Shango (voices and plucked strings), Tibetan Buddhist Vajrapani, usually depicted with a lightening bolt in his right hand, who ushers in a return of the dungchen trumpets, this time with an otherworldly Japanese nohkan (flute). As a natural force, thunder is so dramatic it's not surprising that cultures everywhere have created deities because of our inability to control it and our desire to placate it. The music Micus has devised is newly composed and sometimes seems like an offering, sometimes a celebration. ‘A Song for Perun’, the closing track for the Slavic thunder god, marks the final return of the Tibetan trumpets, starting quietly but arcing into glorious fanfares pushing the instrument to crazy extremes like a golden light in the sky after the storm has passed.