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Release Date: 27-03-2007
Label: Evolution Music
Catalog Number: EM9910-2
Barcode: 8018724991025
Musical Style: New Age / Therapeutic
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 Bansuri Flutes | 7 | 3 Dilruba, Bansuri Flute |
| 2 | Dilruba | 8 | 3 Tung Hsiao, Gong |
| 3 | 3 Flutes (G), Tanpura, Drilbu | 9 | Santur, 2 Bansuri Flutes |
| 4 | Santur, Bansuri Flute, Drilbu, Ding-sha | 10 | 3 Dilruba |
| 5 | 3 Sitar | 11 | 2 Bansuri Flutes |
| 6 | Bansuri Flute | ||
Description:
Following his successful debut album Mandala, a journey in 12 phases discovering the traditional sounds of Indian classical music, with his new work, the album Ku, the multi-instrumentalist Akshan continues his studies of the spiritual and therapeutical energies of Sound and Music. A love for pure, clear and beneficial Sound which has in Silence its foundations: that Silence in which every sound reveals its own authentic nature. Ku is a delicate and natural research of timbre and harmonies, with acoustic sonorities only (neither electric nor electronic instruments have been used for the recordings of this album) created by ancient instruments of the classical music tradition from India, Tibet and China such as bansuri flute, dilruba, santoor, Tibetan singing bowls, tanpura, swaramandala, gongs and other idiophonic instruments, also disclosing the resonance of sitar (in a cyclic composition for 3 sitars) and of silences created by the tung hsiao flute (an ancient and rare Chinese flute used for meditation by the Zen Monks Ch'an of the VIII century school P'u Hua). A rainbow of heart opening sounds that uplifts the soul: sounds flowing out of the consciousness of the sacred All.
Biography:
Devoted to his attraction for the ancient Oriental cultures and for his desire of learning and discovering the Sound in its complete sense including both spiritual and healing sides, the virtuous poli-instrumentalist Akshan ('the Sun and the Moon'), alias of the italian Enzo Placanica from Genoa, made long journeys through India in order to deeply study its ancient musical traditions.
After his approach to classical music improving the practice of traditional instruments like the santur (struck stringed instrument originally from Kashmir consisting of a trapezoidal sound-box wich has 109 metal strings - 3 per course - held by 40 bridges), the bansuri flute (transverse bamboo flute) and the dilruba (a bowed instrument from central Asia with 4 metal and 25 sympathetic strings), Akshan deepened his knowledge of Tibetan music in Dharamsala (India), where the exiled Dalai Lama lives, and in Nepal guest of the Sakya monastery of Boudhnath, using instruments like the ancient Tibetan singing bowls and the dung-chen (a long telescopic trumpet traditionally played by the monks).
After enjoying the success of some concerts held in India together with his santur teacher Pandit Bhajan Sopori (whom this album is dedicated to) and following his research on sound/space inside monuments, temples and ancient theatres, Akshan transformed his fascinating experiences and inspirations into music.
