Winter’s End

This powerful album opens with some strange buzzing percussion and tapping wood. It’s the first time a chikulo has appeared in any of Stephan Micus’ pieces. He recently acquired the instrument from Mozambique and it’s the bass end of the wonderful timbila (xylophone) orchestras of the Chopi people of Tonga. These days the chikulo is rarely used as it’s so big and difficult to transport – it has four wooden keys and large gourd resonators. In his opening track, ‘Autumn Hymn’, Micus plays three chikulo, each producing very different sounds, plus a Japanese nohkan (flute), the chikulo sounding very earthbound and the flute, heavenly. It’s a combination he returns to at the end in ‘Winter Hymn’ with the addition of Tibetan cymbals.

Here Micus plays 11 instruments from ten countries: from Mozambique and elsewhere in Africa to Japan, Bali, Peru and the US. As far as the chikulo is concerned, the most ambitious track is ‘Oh Chikulo’ in which he builds an ensemble from four instruments with a variety of percussive and resonant textures. Is this a homage to Mozambique? I don’t think so. Micus takes his instruments out of their original contexts and puts them alongside totally unfamiliar neighbours to showcase their sonic potential. Among the highlights are intimate groups of three satar (bowed instruments from Xinjiang), two south American charangos (guitars) and the four chikulo. If there’s a narrative, it’s about migratory birds leaving Europe and returning to Africa for the winter with the ‘Baobab Dance’ with four kalimba as a moment of arrival and the ‘Sun Dance’ a moment of celebration with what could be a South African choir. However you interpret it, you do feel you’re being taken on quite some journey.