Waves - solo huaca 2001
originally released on the Ancient-Future.com label
11 Compositions for the haunting beauty of the huaca, a unique organic instrument played by its premier composer in 3 part wind harmony. Invented in 1980 this multiple chambered pan-cultural vessel flute, based on the thousands of years old idea of sound in clay, is a radical innovation. Chambers are tuned to a specific key and to each other using the organic low prime ratios that nature intended. The shape of the instrument reminds some of lungs or the heart, while the finish has an ancient organic look.
The sound has a primal quality that can call up memories of a distant past. It’s like the sound draws one into an ancient mystery tradition with its subtle blend of notes, evoking something ineffable from the heart. The overall theme of Waves is the ocean as our own 70% salt water body.
“Huaca” is a South American native term for something holy or sacred, and the hallowed sound of breath flowing through fired clay inspires this sense of the sacred. For thousands of years flute instruments from virtually every culture have been used for ritual and healing. The huaca represents a radical innovation in this tradition with large chambers allowing for three-part harmony in a wind instrument for the first time. These hauntingly beautiful compositions have an organic, primal sound quality that spans the ages of time.
The mysterious sounds linking pieces on this project were recorded on underwater hydrophones. Orca pods, volcanic tremors, and sounds of unknown origin serve as a cry for help and wake up call to not take the ocean, its creatures and habitat for granted.
REVIEW QUOTES
“When I listen to the music on Waves I feel as if I am being drawn into an ancient mystery tradition where the secrets are all encoded in the subtle blend of notes, evoking something ineffable from the heart without passing through the mental region and its thoughts.”
-Brian Swimme, cosmologist and author of The Universe Story, The Heart of the Cosmos, and The Universe is a Green Dragon.
Waves - solo huaca has enriched my musical library and my
practice. As a massage therapist of 32 years, I am always
looking for new music to enhance the environment for effectivemassage. Waves creates the light trance state that is so effective for both client and practioner in evoking both deep relaxation and the vibrational healing consciousness necessary for soothing and transformational work. I highly recommend Alan Tower's beautiful CD, Waves.
-Deborah Tash, Massage Therapist - Healing Practitioner
“The ocarina is such a beautiful, beautiful instrument. I feel privileged to be part of the historical continuity of it . . in a very small way, like a grain of sand on the beach.The pieces on this record are composed and performed by the instrument’s most advanced player. Alan’s music is often contrapuntal and complex. He has mastered the instrument.”
Sharon Rowell, inventor of the huaca, a radical innovation based on the ocarina
I knew this guy in high school and he was a total jock and Alan has now mastered an instrument I didn't even know about. It's haunting but sweet and has an effect that is unlike any I have experienced.
Roger Hand- A Bioneer
Sometimes haunting, sometimes soothing, Waves is culturally and ecologically sensitive with the mysterious musical sounds of the huaca and mammals of the sea.
- Judy deReus, UCSF Campus Planner
ALAN TOWER BIO
organic world acoustic
For many years I was entranced with writing for solo acoustic guitar with Leo Kottke, Alex deGrassi and Michael Hedges as inspiration or mentors. In the early 90’s, experimenting with a new barring technique, I injured my hand so severely I was not able to play for many years, and now only for short periods. However, this was a gift, as I became drawn to a series of new earth based instruments and began working with the inventors to expand their tonality and resonance in the world. The first was the huaca, a triple chambered clay vessel flute, then the didjeridu and most recently the Hang and Shruti Box. These instruments are made from clay, wood, alloy or agave and provide a natural connection to my work as an environmental activist. The instruments are also based on, or directly from, non-western cultures and use the natural scale vs. equal temperament. The intersection of music, activism and world cultural became complete without a previous plan to integrate these together. In bringing the western compositional approach used in writing for solo guitar to these new instruments, I discovered that there was a wide world open to me in pushing the instruments beyond their current boundaries and became fascinated by experiencing an music based on this natural scale heard in Indian music.
The work of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry have particularly inspired my vision of music as a voice and catalyst for a more humane sustainable culture. My compositions and unusual sounds were spotlighted in the Ellipsis Arts CD/book Orbitones, Spooharps and Bellowphones, in a series of Tsunami Rangers video’s on sea kayaking, in the 2004 Disney.Skywalker movie Peter Pan, and in soundtracks for meditation and yoga. I perform solo, in duo, with Ancient Future and SpiritMoves, and in the Cave Concert series overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. (www.greenmusicnetwork.org)
Responses:
“The music of Alan Tower is all tracings. Like the bards of ancient times he holds up the mirror of our follies. But he also holds up stars and mists and fleeting lights that trace hidden paths out of the darkness. He is a composer of dreams and a gentle artisan of hope.”
- Miriam Teresa McGillis O.P. Founder Genesis Farm Lecturer, Fate of the Earth
“When I listen to the huaca music on Waves I feel as if I am being drawn into an ancient mystery tradition where the secretsare all encoded in the subtle blend of notes, evoking something ineffable from the heart without passing through the mental region and its thoughts”.
- Brian Swimme, Author of The Universe Story, and The Universe is a Green Dragon
Huaca
A pan-cultural triple chambered clay wind instrument. A radical innovation on the ocarina invented by Sharon Rowell of Berkeley, CA in 1980. The split mouthpiece allows one, two or three chambers to be played together in harmony. With three independent chambers of sound arising from a single breath, the huaca for some seems to trigger a response from strands of DNA long atrophied away - resonating with an eternal place deep in our genes.
Didjeridu
An Australian instrument discovered and developed some 35,000 years ago by aboriginal peoples in partnership with termites. It is now played throughout the world. Made from a wide variety of woods and cactus stalks each has a sound unique to the climate it grew in. My approach tends to focus on harmonic melodies above the drone, odd time signatures and driving rhythm.
Hang
A new instrument from Swiss makers that is a modern day pan instrument of the new millennium. The amazing sound of the Hang (Hung) has captivated the hearts of both musicians and audiences around the world.
Shruti Box
From the Indian music culture most consider this a simple drone box with bellows, but in reality it is one of the most versatile instruments in the world today and can be played like a drum combined with chord changes. www.shrutibeauty.net
Recordings
Recordings (released on Ancient Future Records.com and Hemi Sync/Monroe Products)are each based on and ecological or cultural theme with the different musical pieces linked together.
10,000 Thunderstorms: the spirit of evolution 2003 remaster original pressing 2000
A mesmerizing sojourn into the cosmos. A 7 year project, this record is a wild ride from the initial flashpoint of creation to the present. A musical telling of the great story of the universe. A sound signature of fired clay, alloy, wood and agave towards a whiff of the spirit of evolution. Like nothing else. 74 minutes
The Eternal Presence 2003
A transcendent four part didjeridu compositions for deep listening, yoga, massage & meditation.
This project was recorded in a 50 yd stone tunnel overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, which transforms the sound with its radically powerful resonance. The collaboration features master players from South Africa, Mexico & the U.S. on one-of-a-kind agave didjeridu instruments in harmony ranging from 2 ft. to 10 ft. long. 71 minutes
Arktos - crystalline compositions for guitar – solo & duo 2004
11 truly innovative pieces touching on archetypal Arctic elements of raw natural beauty, glaciers, & ocean rhythms as well as the intuition, sorrow & equanimity around preservation of this frontier wilderness. With virtuoso Matthew Montfort on second guitar.
Breath of Creation - solo huaca 2006
A remake of the original Waves recording 2001.
11 Compositions for the haunting beauty of the huaca. The shape of the instrument reminds some of lungs or the heart, while the finish looks ancient and earthy. The sound has a primal quality that can call up memories of a distant past. The overall concept of Waves is the ocean as our own 70% salt water body with human activities creating a growing toxicity, requiring a radical change in perspective about our role here.
Emergence – 2007 Hemi-Sync/Meta Music
Pieces for solo Hang and three Hangs played together on a custom built Triple Hang Altar. The amazing sound of the Hang has captures the hearts of both musicians and audiences worldwide.
Bearing Witness: our vanishing ethnosphere
solo & duo didjeridu 2000
We are in the middle of a mass extinction estimated by experts conservatively to be 5,000 times higher than the expected natural extinction rate. A singe species - ours- is responsible for this sixth extinction crisis in the history of life. Languages are disappearing at five times this rate of species extinction. Each language, is in itself, an entire ecosystem of ideas and intuitions, a watershed of thought, an old growth forest of the mind. The world is in a massive phase of homogenization brought about primarily by relentless corporate values & actions - the global corporatization of world culture - resulting in the tearing apart of indigenous cultures through the mining and destruction of sensitive ecosystem for profit.
Quintessence - 1974-1998 best acoustic instrumentals and songs 1998 Pieces linked together into a whole using short historical audio clips providing a backdrop for the year each piece was composed.
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