Album Notes

The Array mbira (mm-beer-ah) is an ingeniously rearranged and updated version of an ancient African instrument, the mbira, also known by the names, kalimba, likembe, sanza and most commonly the thumb piano. Array mbiras are handcrafted works of art made in the USA in very limited quantities by a small team of highly skilled and dedicated craftsmen, artists and musicians. There are less than 200 Array mbiras in the world. Some of the well known musicians playing the Array mbira include Imogen Heap, Ry Cooder, Pharaoh Sanders and Kelli Rudick. It’s also being used by a growing number of film and television composers throughout the world.
On this album, composer and Array mbira player and producer Patrick Hadley weaves together songs inspired by ancient cultures, their rituals and their instruments and by a life long love of the magical, mysterious and mystical realms of the imagination. Patrick also plays keyboards, koto and the Balinese trompong.
Patrick recalls,” I spent a lot of time in Japan a few years ago and was fortunate enough to find my way to a small town in the mountains where I met Mihoko Maekawa, a master koto player and teacher. The traditional Japanese koto is a harp-like string instrument consisting of 13 strings that have individual movable bridges for tuning adjustments and a 6 foot long hollow wooden body. Most koto players are very traditional and only play what they’ve spent a lifetime learning but there are a few that are open minded and willing to explore new ideas and different music. Mihoko is one of them. We recorded at two different locations one of which was her home. It was winter and there was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. As I gazed through a large picture window I could see the Japanese Alps towering above miles of rice fields and gently rolling hills dotted with sugar frosted cedar trees. There was a beautiful hawk circling above and a curtain of dark storm clouds in the distance. I felt inspired and I knew, this was going to be good.... After being served tea and cookies and stoking up the fire we began recording a series of improvised songs. Mihoko had 5 different kotos and several were over 150 years old. Each one of them had it’s own distinctive voice which heavily influenced my mbira playing and song choices. By the time we were finished, large flakes of snow were falling slowly from the sky. Darkness was near and a storm was moving in. It was time to go.
After returning to my studio in Fujimi town and reviewing our recordings I felt that several of the pieces would benefit greatly with the addition of the shaku-hatchi flute, another very traditional Japanese instrument considered by many to be the most difficult instrument in the world to master. Unfortunately I could not find a shaku-hatchi player and wound up using a wonderfully realistic synth patch instead. I liked it so much I used it on quite a few different pieces.
Towards the end of my last visit to Japan I was browsing through a second hand shop and stumbled upon several used kotos. I bought the one in best condition and hurried back to my studio to see what I could do with it. During that time I was having to make a difficult decision about continuing or ending my relationship with my Japanese girlfriend. I chose to end it and the song “Farewell Again” was born out of a mix of sadness and loss but also of love and appreciation. The bitter and the sweet woven together to form the fabric of life.
Another major creative influence for me came from my travels in Indonesia, primarily the island of Bali. Most people that have been there agree, it’s a magical and wonderous place where creativity and spirituality reign over everything not to mention it’s a true tropical paradise. Almost everyone is either a musician, a dancer, a wood or stone carver, a painter, a weaver, etc...
I was traveling with my Array mbira and jamming with as many musicians as possible but there was a serious problem in that the tuning of the various instruments used in the Balinese music was quite different than my western 12 tone tuning and changing the tuning on an Array mbira is no easy task and completely out of the question for the metal pots, bowls, bars and gongs of the Balinese gamelan orchestra. There would not be any recording and in fact, the only way I would be able to integrate some of the Balinese instruments into my music would be to have an instrument custom made and tuned to western scale. It was quite an education visiting the 350 year old foundry where they brew up their own secret formula of a mostly brass alloy. Lucky for me they were willing to do the work and ship the instrument back to California. 3 months later I had my instrument which is known as a trompong. It can be heard on track # 8, Bali Morning.

Special thanks to Bill Wesley for inventing the Array mbira, Jennifer Therieau for her continuing support and encouragement and awesome graphic design and photography, Mihoko Maekawa for her inspirational koto playing, Keiko Maruyama for her love and support and without whose help I would have not had such an amazing experience in Japan, my kids, Mason Hadley for creating and maintaining the Array mbira web site and Justin Hart who got me to Japan in the first place.