artist: Stephan Micus country of origin: Germany style(s): World music, wthno ambient, folk, avant garde essential releases: Koan (1981, ECM) Wings Over Water (1982, ECM) Listen To The Rain (1983, ECM) Twilight Fields (1987, ECM) The Music Of Stones (1989, ECM)

Stephan Micus is a supremely gifted musician and creator of an ethno-ambient music that sounds like no other. His personal collection of instruments reads like a global compendium of ethnic music with string, wind and percussion instruments from nearly every part of the world. Then there’s the ones he designs himself, plus everyday objects like flower pots which he adapts and uses in a musical context. Micus takes to his instruments with almost childlike curiosity to produce a very personal music, both earthy and sublime, meditative and celebratory.

To be honest, he hasn’t really made a bad record but if you haven’t heard him yet here's a few excellent albums to start with. Wings Over Water and Twilight Fields find Micus playing collections of different sized clay flowerpots, struck in various ways and enhanced on occasion with some mesmerising Middle Eastern-style vocals. These enchanting albums are also among his most accessible. On Koan Micus summons a wonderfully still, Zen-like atmosphere with Japanese shakuhachi flute, zither and other exotic instruments. Listen To The Rain boasts some bright and deeply beautiful and constructions for acoustic guitar.

Altogether different from the other albums listed above is The Music Of Stones which was performed in the large acoustic space of the Ulm Cathedral in West Germany. The chief instruments here are resonating stone blocks specially carved by sculptor Elmar Daucher which, like the clay pots on earlier albums, are “played” in various ways to produce an astonishing array of tones and colours. It could easily sound like a mess over the course of a whole album, but with the aid of some shakuhachi flute and vocals it holds together beautifully.

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