Search - Gary Stroutsos :: Oru: The Natural Order

When you think of Afro-Cuban percussion, you're usually envisioning throbbing sensual grooves and the syncopated rhythms of congas, timbales, and cowbells in a frenzy of erotic dance overdrive. Flute player Gary Stroutsos hears something different. Inspired by the mystical Santeria religion of Cuba, Stroutsos has created an album of sparse meditations. With a pair of Afro-Cuban percussionists, his rhythms waft and wander as if in a sleepwalk. Occasionally, on tracks like "Elegua" and "Yemaya," a pulse actually threatens a groove. Across this textural landscape, Stroutsos improvises melodies based on traditional Yoruban chants, transposed to an assemblage of clay flutes and the Native American flute for which he's best known. While Stroutsos's two previous albums, Hidden World and Pacific Moon, played in electronic ambient spaces, Oru has a more organic sound, born of the earth. --John Diliberto