On Into the Ancient, Grammy-nominated recording artist Peter Phippen explores the gleaming mystical sonorities of ancient and modern flutes. Within a 12-track album of haunting New Age/world music, Phippen and co-producer/synthesist Ivar Lunde Jr. offer a captivating collage of the flutes’ translucent chimerical whisper and subtle electronic sound images. It’s a shimmering panorama illustrating the gauzy veil of perception that separates our present state from the airy world of the spirits.
“With these songs,” Phippen says, “I employ antique instruments as antennae to directly channel the ancient voices of mature seedlings and allow their wails and whispers of time immemorial to be known to those who listen. Each vestige of spirituality played demonstrates magical significance not only through the music captured on this album but through the tangible energy that courses through the bamboo or wood as it sits in one’s hands.”
“I have a deep interest in playing the old flutes and museum replicas,” Phippen reflects. “I am curious as to what notes were available and how these flutes may have been played in their time. The instruments on Into the Ancient are antiques dating back to the Edo period of Japan, or historically accurate replicas, meaning that the makers of my flute replicas took measurements from the original artifacts, but they did not change the instruments to conform with today’s tunings or playability. This makes the flutes sound more mysterious and unusual.”
As a recording artist, Phippen was the first non-Native American flutist signed to Canyon Records, which released his classic 2003 album NIGHT SONG. In 2010, his WOODNOTES WYLD: HISTORIC FLUTE SOUNDS FROM THE DR. RICHARD W. PAYNE COLLECTION was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Native American Music Album category.
Get the album on Bandcamp.
“On Into The Ancient, Grammy-nominated recording artist Peter Phippen mystically expresses the opalescent sonorities of the most archetypal flutes in his vast collection. This album highlights Phippen’s in-depth exploration of the old instruments: each flute saturated with a shadowy, gossamer voice. With Ivar Lunde’s shimmering panorama of sound and Phippen’s transcendent playing, these recordings mellifluously illustrate the gauzy veil of perception that separates the now from the airy world of the spirits. Phippen’s haunting flute timbres breezily float on the airstream causing the veil to billow, creating a thinning of the filmy curtain to reveal that which has been a mystery for millennia.” – Dr. Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl
Ivar Lunde Jr Bio
Ivar Lunde Jr is a 20th century experimental electronic and classical music composer educated at the Conservatory of Music in Oslo, Norway, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. A prolific composer, he’s been awarded numerous prizes and commissions over the past 50 years with many works published and recorded in the United States and Norway. Active as a conductor, he’s worked with symphony and chamber orchestras in both Europe and the United States.
Source: Above text via Bandcamp.