Songs from the Bardo begins with a bell ringing out once, twice, three times, as a ritualistic chant emerges from the dense silence. The collaborative composition by avant-garde icon Laurie Anderson, Tibetan multi-instrumentalist Tenzin Choegyal, and composer and activist Jesse Paris Smith is a guided journey through the visionary text of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, unfolding in an 80-minute ebb and flow of sound and words. Songs from the Bardo is a transporting experience, meant to draw the l…
Stephan Micus's 25th solo album for ECM: nine pieces for thunder gods of different cultures, built around the Tibetan dung chen trumpet. Micus plays all instruments and voices, recorded 2020-2022 at MCM Studios.