Album Notes

Sky Treasure Review
Derk Richardson
Mix Media
Yoga Journal
November 2001

TECHUNG AND KIT WALKER: SKY TREASURE

Child of exiled Tibetans, schooled in opera at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala, India, and steeped in the folk music of his people, Techung (a.k.a. Tashi D. Sharzur) brings every aspect of that background to bear on this collaboration with Northern California keyboardist/producer Kit Walker.

Joined by percussionist Geoffrey Gordon, Techung and Walker have successfully negotiated the daunting terrain between acoustic music rooted in ancient traditions and technologically-enhanced New Age, world-fusion soundscapes.

Techung plays dranyen (Tibetan lute), piwang (Tibetan violin), and bamboo flute, which fit naturally with Gordon's hand drums and miscellaneous percussion, and play beautifully off Walker's judiciously applied synthesizers and drum programming.

Techung's most stirring instrument, however, is his voice.

Although he performs in his native tongue, his intentions are powerfully expressed in his emotionally saturated tenor.

In "Land of Snows," he sings of the treacherous journey through the Himalayas undertaken by Tibetans fleeing the Chinese occupation; "Pawo Thupten Ngodup" was inspired by a freedom fighter who sacrificed himself in self-immolation on April 27, 1998, in support of a Tibetan hunger strike; Techung wrote "Tashi Gathon" as a modern Tibetan New Year song, envisioning a free Tibet; he sings "Aku Pema - The Lotus One," in homage to the Dalai Lama, because the Chinese government banned it; and in "Compassion Prayer (Treasure Revealer)," after singing a melody based on a ceremonial song from his mother's home region, he chants prayer written by the Dalai Lama.

From beginning to end, Walker, who has worked with Jai Uttal, Deval Premal, the Native American trio Walela, and others, expands the aural space with swirling atmospherics and contemporary electronics, lending momentum to the music, and providing a colorful, and always respectful, backdrop for Techung's messages.