Album Notes

"An elegant invitation into mystery! Stephen's work quiets the mind and soothes the soul." --Lauren Artress, author and creator of the Labyrinth Project.
An international reed player, Steve Coughlin plays Turkish ney, North Indian bansuri (bamboo flute), soprano sax and bass flute. His performance experience covers a broad spectrum of traditions and styles. His improvisations are featured in the Turkish and Indian episodes of the "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" TV series (Lucas-ABC) and the award-winning documentaries "Mr. O" and "Thanh's War". His music has often been featured on public radio.
He has played for and directed music for the Mevlevi dervish sema (Turning ceremony) in the US and with Turkish ensembles in Konya and Istanbul.
He has played with Terry Riley, The Grateful Dead, The Surfaris, Zydeco Express, R & B artists Gene Chandler, the Soul Sisters and Billy Stewart, and Nubian master Hamza El Din. He has improvised accompaniments to recitations by Ellen Burstyn, Wavy Gravy, and poets Coleman Barks and Robert Bly.
He has studied North Indian raga with Pandit Pran Nath, bansuri with G.S. Sachdev, composition with William A. Mathieu, Arabic and Sudanese music with Hamza El Din and ney with Sadrettin Ozcimi and other renowned ney masters.