Search - Coyote Oldman :: Under an Ancient

Under an Ancient Sky is Anasazi Flute Alchemy.

Walking Stick | Southwest USA | 03/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Under an Ancient Sky is the new release from Coyote Oldman, March 2008. It reunites the innovative duo Michael Graham Allen and Barry Stramp for the first time since 1999's House Made of Dawn. Allen's flute playing combined with Stramp's arranging and aural sculpting is musical alchemy. The sound is textural, visual. It's like walking through a room of crystal chandeliers at sunset. Allen is the ever inventive flute maker and musician and Stramp the mechanical magician. This Hearts of Space release is all about "exploration and art" as the liner notes declare--even more so about "passion and heart" as the listener will discover.



Allen's reintroduction of the Anasazi flute on the groundbreaking Rainbird, 2004 featured a clarion call from the past with its chirps, glass like notes and unearthed, otherworldly melodies. It was as refreshing as a Desert rain. The deep exploration of the Anasazi flute continues on Under an Ancient Sky. Stramp's intuitive aural processing is subtle and supportive complementing Allen's more loose, organic playing. The Anasazi flute is a rim-blown flute based on a 1200 year-old artifact. Allen reconstructed these flutes using measurements and his more than twenty-five years of flute making skills. This is a challenging instrument to play by anyone's standards. It does not lend itself to the fast articulation, tonguing or rapid runs like other Native flutes. One has to slow down and play at the pace the flute demands. The slightest facial movement can change the pitch and only through a concert of breath, embouchure and determination does the player explore the higher octaves. The tonal and breath work on Under an Ancient Sky is masterful. Allen sets a deliberate and slower pace from the opening song "New Worlds" and continues the walking meditation pace throughout. "Between the Colors" eases into the solar plexus with its bass sounds bathing us like moonlight on a sand dune. "Under an Ancient Sky" and "Luminescence" are also gorgeous offerings flowing elegantly somewhere between earth and sky. Allen has said that this Anasazi flute recreation is quite possibly the same flute depicted with Kokopelli pictographs and petroglyphs. Whether the Anasazi people used these flutes ceremoniously, for peaceful meditation or reaching between dreams and life might be never known. Under an Ancient Sky takes us there to that time before contrails and instant communications when we read the stars and knew our place amongst them.



I feel fortunate to have previewed Under an Ancient Sky while walking along the Rio Grande River in southern New Mexico on a particularly blustery spring day. Buzzards were surfing updrafts and a lone Sandhill Crane fought the gusts ungracefully. I, was under an ancient sky and this graceful, understated album, Under an Ancient Sky, was at once grounding and uplifting. As with all other Coyote Oldman recordings Under an Ancient Sky seems to be comfortable in its own skin and equally at home in the massage or yoga studio as it is taking a walk along the river.



Randy Granger"

Beatiful, uplifting - calming & meditative

Geoffrey M. Jensen | 05/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard Coyote Oldman at my meditation group. As soon as I got home that night I ordered this album, as well as "House Made of Dawn." Great music for meditation, relaxation, or just some nice ambiance as you entertain guests or do housework."