Towards the Wind

Stephan Micus has been creating idiosyncratic, global soundscapes for about 30 years, playing instruments from around the world and setting them in unlikely combinations. With Towards the Wind, he's become infatuated with the Armenian double-reed instrument called the duduk and even studied it with the reigning master, Djivan Gasparyan. He plays it solo on a couple of tracks, including a bass duduk on "Before Sunrise," in which he sounds surprisingly like Eric Dolphy playing bass clarinet. But it's best heard in Micus's eclectic combinations like "Birds of Dawn," where it sits with two kalimbas, six shakuhachis, three talking drums, and two sattars (Chinese violins). "Flying Horse" is a wildly ecstatic journey with 12 talking drums pounding out cross-talking rhythms while Micus weaves an incantational solo on shakuhachi. There's no mistaking Micus's austere duduk playing for the subtle ministrations of Gasparyan, but unlike many musicians who pick up instruments from around the world to contrive a faux ethnic fusion, Stephan Micus goes beyond superficial exotica and reaches a deeper spirit. --John Diliberto