Stephan Micus

To The Rising Moon is the 26th solo album for ECM by the German multi-instrumentalist and composer Stephan Micus. He plays every instrument and sings every voice himself, layering the parts in the studio. The instruments come from Colombia, India, Xinjiang, Bavaria, Cambodia, Egypt and Borneo. At the centre is the Colombian tiple, slightly smaller than an acoustic guitar. Its bright plucked sound alternates with darker bowed strings, and the two worlds meet only in the closing title piece.

The tiple is the national instrument of Colombia, with twelve steel strings in four triple courses. Micus had his own built in 2017 by the maker Orlando Pimentel, and he says it has "the quality of light, of something shining". Around it he places the Indian dilruba, the Uyghur sattar from Xinjiang and the sapeh of Borneo, a plucked lute that he bows on a new bridge. He also returns to the tableharp, which he had last recorded on Till the End of Time in 1978, and adds nay, Cambodian flute, chord zither and voice. The eleven pieces were recorded between 2021 and 2023 at MCM Studios and the cover art is by Eduard Micus.

Most tracks are short and built on a single instrumental colour multiplied. To The Rising Sun opens with two tiples, one setting a percussive jangle and the other singing through its contours, as Tyran Grillo puts it. Dream Within Dream gathers six dilrubas into a lyrical, cello-like choir, and In Your Eyes sets three tiples under a wordless love song. Waiting For The Nightingale places a chorus of voices beside sattar, dilruba, flutes and zithers. The Silver Fan is a tiple solo, and the seven-minute To The Rising Moon finally brings plucked and bowed strings together, like a hymn to something steady in the night sky.

German critics heard a quiet, inward record after the louder Thunder. In Jazzpodium Adam Olschewski noted how compact it is, with most things said in under five minutes, yet found in it "a mystical quality" (our translation). Sebastian Meißner of Sounds and Books called it tender, intimate and moving, and a strong contrast to its predecessor. Reviewing it for ECM Reviews in 2025, Grillo singled out The Silver Fan as the place where "light and shadow merge with a kiss."

This is the CD edition, ECM 2834, released in November 2024.