Album Notes

Ban Sabai Records’ (a Chiang Mai, Thailand label) second release “The water sings” continues with its aim to create sound to rejuvenate and soothe soul, body and mind. The four movements present an eclectic variety of interesting and soothing sounds from South and South-East Asia. They also reflect the international character of the artists; musicians, engineers and producers alike. All have traveled to many countries in different continents and have taken the sounds, instruments and the different moods in which each culture expresses their values, beliefs and feelings with them as inspiration for this CD. The result is a fusion of folk and court instruments with instruments sometimes used exclusively in devotional music.

A careful selection was made from the extensive range of instruments that world traveler and recording and performing artist Christopher of the Wolves has collected during his musical voyage over the globe. Over the more then two decades of his playing career he has developed an unique way of playing and producing sounds from among others various gongs, Tibetan prayer bowls, drums, extraordinary stringed and wind instruments ranging in geographical origin as far apart as Asia, Africa and Australia.
The wide variety of studio recordings were blended and mixed with samples recorded during travels thru various South and East Asian countries.

Once the framework was completed recording artist vocalist Loren Brown used the inspiration of the music to add chants to the movements. On Movement 1 the universal prayer ‘Loka Samasta Sukhino Bahvantu’ wishing for eternal peace and for all to be happy blends with a beautiful Bansuri flute melody played by multi instrumentalist Peter Lee. The ancient Hebrew chant in Movement 3 calls for brothers to unite, while the Sanskrit mantra Gaayatri in Movement 2 expresses the wish for mortal, immortal and divine peace. The chant in Movement 4 is Loren’s improvisation in a universal language that could be ours if we imagine the earth as an experiment of all civilizations in the universe learning to coexist in peace and harmony.

The resulting soothing sounds and melodies with underlying drones and overtones create an excellent musical experience for relaxation and inner harmony and reflection.

Something on the more unusual instruments used:
Hulusu
This instrument is most commonly associated with the Southern Chinese Dai minority, but is also found amongst other minority groups of the region such as the Achang, Jingpo and Wa. The hulusu (which means "gourd silk", referring to the instrument's silky tone) is an end-blown free reed pipe with gourd wind chest. Each pipe has a triangular free reed made of brass. Most hulusu have a melody pipe and two shorter drone pipes. So called double hulusu have also been developed, with two melody pipes tuned a fourth apart, capable of polyphonic playing.
Gopichan
This single-stringed instrument is originally from India. Traditionally used by town criers to announce news or tell stories, the gopichan is made with a gourd, wood, rawhide and steel string attached to a tuning peg. Sound is relaxed when squeezing the long wooden neck, producing an eerie eastern sound.


Press review:

September 2005
Volume 10, No. 9
A RICH EXPERIENCE!
Ban Sabai’s first CD release, ‘The Flower Floats’, was created to relax and rejuvenate mind and body and does it well, but it is essentially a highly crafted sound score, designed as an audio sedative.
‘The Water Sings’, their second release, produced by Thomas Van Nes, performed by Christopher of the Wolves and Loren Brown, is a vastly different listening experience.
‘The Water Sings’ comprises 4 movements, created with instruments used for centuries to create vibratory sounds conducive for trance states: Tibetan Singing Bowls, gongs and drums - or the droning sounds of the didgeridoo - acting as a kind of aural magnet, paralleling the natural heart rhythm to cosmic vibrations.
We are thus taken out of our personal ego and brought to a common spiritual plane. But ‘The Water Sings’ also uses the human voice (Hebrew chanting) as well as Chinese flute. Both musical instruments of great human pathos. The fusion of these 2 traditions has produced a rich and provocative audio experience, full of mystery and transcendental potential.

Galen Garwood
http://www.gmorning.info/september_2005/news.htm