Thunder

"Thunder, the most recent release from multi-intrumentalist and world music practitioner Stephan Micus, is far from roaring despite paying tribute to several thunder gods around the world. It's a rather sharply plotted musical excursion that keeps reimagining the limits of improvised world sounds. Micus, an eternal traveler with a long-legged career nearly exclusively made on ECM Records, plays 14 instruments here, and forges homogeneous stylistic paths in innovative ways over the course of nine tracks".

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"Recorded from 2020 to 2022, Thunder reflects Micus's fascination with Tibetan monasteries and the liturgical Buddhist music their monks play. The "star" of this aggressive, exciting album is the dung chen, a ritual trumpet more than 13 feet long. It makes quite a noise. So do the South African storm drum, the Japanese bamboo flute known as the shakuhachi, the ki un ki (a handmade wooden flute one plays by inhaling) and kyeezee, triangular bronze chimes used in the temples of Burma ... This narrative music clears paths fresh to most Western ears".