Search - Coyote Oldman :: Best Of: In Beauty I Walk

In Native American mythology, Coyote Oldman is a trickster. It's also a long-lived duo that takes Native American flutes and sends them through prairie cathedrals on wings of digital reverb, delays, and harmonization. Michael Graham Allen makes the flutes and plays them along with Barry Stramp, who routes the flutes' windblown melodies through a maze of effects. Their music is born in the moment, reflecting and refracting through the many mirrored images of flutes that bounce back at them through the processing. In Beauty I Walk is a collection of their work from 1986 through 1995 and it's a perfect way to become immersed in the sound of this unusual group. It includes "Night Forest," a song that shows their Native American influences and ends up with "Compassion," featuring Japanese soprano Hui Cheng. They don't play Native American music, but their slow-motion melodies seem born from the American plains. --John Diliberto