CD AGR 018
Magicada Tymbals
1. Magicada Tymbals
2. Cicala Montagna
3. Nala
4. Cassini
5. Triptychon
6. Tibicinini Septem
7. Magicada Tredecim
8. Nas
9. Cicadetta Sibilae
10. Kachine
11. Mahu
12. Cicada Tymbals
mixed and overdubbed from various recordings
at Mensch Studio by Fizzè
alan kushan, santur & roland schiltknecht, hackbrett & bergruf
Featuring:
Gabriel Schiltknecht, percussion
Heiri Känzig, double bass
Matthieu Michel, flügelhorn
Raphael Zweifel, cello
Rhea Schiltknecht, voices
Vladiswar Nadishana, khomus
More Info
Hackbretter sind Musikinstrumente, die nur dank ihren zahlreichen Brücken klingen. Über 100 Saiten werden auf diesen Brücken in Intervalle geteilt . Für mich sind dies auch Brücken zwischen Kulturen und Zeiträumen: Der Ursprung dieser mit Schlägeln gespielten trapezförmigen Zither liegt im alten Persien, woher sie im Mittelalter auch in unseren Kulturraum kam. Alan Kushan habe ich vor über 30 Jahren getroffen, als er von Teheran in die Schweiz gekommen war. Er fragte mich damals, ob ich ihm helfen könnte, Hartholz zu beschaffen, damit er ein Santur (pers. Hackbrett) bauen könne. Wir fuhren zusammen zu einer Holzhandlung in Zürich. Alan kletterte einen 10 Meter Holzstapel hoch und klopfte jedes Brett ab. Fast zuoberst angekommen rief er zu mir herunter: Roland, das ist es ! Zufällig kam ein Stapelfahrer um die Ecke, der uns fluchend vertreiben wollte. Ich erklärte ihm, warum Alan dort oben hing, worauf er uns das Brett herunter holte. Zwei Monate später war Alans Santur geboren: Beim ersten Hinhören war mir klar: hier ist ein Meister am Werk. Mit meiner damaligen Band „Schildpatt“ spielten wir zusammen 1987 am Jazz Festival in Berlin. Alan spielte seither auf den CD Produktionen „Schildpatt bunju“, „tunsch“, “Sha”, “Shab Tab” und aktuell auf „magicada tymbals“. Die umbrischen Zykaden haben mit unseren Hackbrettern eine Art Dialog entwickelt: Mit ihren Sound Tymbalen scheinen sie ähnlich zu schwingen wie wir mit unseren Saiten: zerlegt in Einzelteile sind es Geräusche, die erst aus Distanz zu singen beginnen.
Magicada tymbals ….
und was die Presse dazu ruft:
Roland Schiltknecht, Hackbrett (swiss alpine hammered dulcimer)
geb. im Kanton Glarus.
Beginnt Anfang der 80er Jahre mit dem alpinen Hackbrett zu experimentieren und Elemente der alpinen Musik mit Elementen aus Jazz und Rock zu verbinden. Er entdeckt die uralte Tradition der Improvisation in der ursprünglichen alpinen Volksmusik (Stegreifspiel).
Gründet 1982 zusammen mit seinem Bruder Gabriel (Drums, Perc.) die Ethno-Jazz-Rock Formation „schildpatt“.
mehrere Konzerte mit „schildpatt“ zwischen 1984 und 1986
aktuelle Konzert- Liste auf seinem eigenen Website
Discographie
div. Platten und CD Produktionen u.a. mit Curt Cress , Eberhard Weber, Heiri Känzig, Roland Dahinden, Jürg Solothurnmann, Hans Kennel, Alan Kushan, Fizzè, Max Lässer, Überland, Stephan Eicher, Engelberg, Paul Haag u.v.a.m.
eine Auswahl:
1987 “bunju” – CD schildpatt CD mit Alan Kushan
1998 “The Return of Peeni Waali” – CD mensch records
2008 “Sha” (Peeni Waali vs. Schildpatt) u.a. mit LK Johnson – CD mensch records
Alan Kushan, santur (persian Hackbrett, i.e. “hammered dulcimer”)
Alan Kushan has passed through multifarious phases of musical composition and performance on his supremely delicate yet highly sophisticated musical instrument — his self-made hammered dulcimer or santur. His compositions and arrangements range from traditional Eastern music to innovations with Western classical and Eastern mystical music, to jazz and world music, thereby creating newer, fresher, elevated musical forms.
Alan Kushan relentlessly expands the horizons of his art form. The speed and precision of his dazzling techniques on his self-made santur are simply breathtaking.
He studied music composition in Zurich, Koln and Berlin as well as Canada and the U.S. He studied with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Ustad Vilayat Khan, among other master musicians. As a child, he studied under three of the greatest Persian santur masters, H. Malek, F. Payvar, and R. Varzandeh.
Over time, not satisfied with the limited range and capacity of his chosen musical instrument, Alan decided to apply his skills as a master instrument-maker to broaden the range of his instrument by adding elements from the modern piano, the harp and the guitar. The result is a unique and powerful instrument, which embodies the musical textures of the ancient and the new.
He cultivates exploration of unusual “universal frequencies”, claiming that this is and has been a prominent source of his creative energy. During the 80s he cultivated expressions of freedom and immediacy against a backdrop of constant “galactic buzz”, while deliberately suspending control of reason and will.
He applies this spontaneous perspective not only in his artistic and poetic creativity but also in his everyday life. Alan Kushan’s performance method reveals an academically meticulous technique that is, paradoxically, in stark contrast to the “dream space” he generally endeavours to depict, and its markedly other-worldly, mystical dimensions.
Alan Kushan has come to the realization that Time itself is captured within Sound, so that it is Sound that is boundless and limitless, and Time itself is a Prisoner within its paradoxical confines. “The Dimension of Sound is akin to the vast universe that mercilessly compels me to progress beyond its peripheral territories. I wish to experience these states of consciousness thoroughly and primordially, so that I may evolve both dynamically and philosophically as an Artist.”
“It is the Quintessence of Sound that I seek. This is an eternal quest for any authentic musician. Alas, what is the source of this quintessence? In order to achieve it, I must be released from my mortal frame for a deeper, more spiritually penetrating journey, all the way back to this source, and then forwards again towards the ultimate consummation of that self-same journey. Could this then be the Silence of God? A mirror of the Absolute Divine?”
Hammered dulcimers are musical instruments that provide sound thanks to many bridges. On these bridges, over 100 strings are divided into intervals. i.e. “spaces/periods of time” are rooms (spaces) between notes.
The origin of this trapezium shaped zither is said to be in ancient Persia, from where it came into our cultural room.
Roland notes: “I met Alan Kushan over 30 years ago, when he reached Switzerland, coming from Teheran. He asked me if I could help to find hard wood to build a santur (the Persian hammered dulcimer). Searching for that precious target at a local wood dealer, Alan climbed over a 10 meters high pile of wood to inspect each plank, listening to it by knocking at it. Almost through with the whole pile, he shouted: Roland, this is it!”
By coincidence, a worker drove around the corner with his forklift truck to chase us off the pile. I explained to him, why Alan was up there, upon which the worker brought us down that particular plank with his forklift. Two months later Alan’s santur came to life. Listening to it I realised: here was a master at work!
With my then band “Schildpatt” we played at the jazz festival in Berlin (1987). Since then Alan played on the CD productions “Schildpatt bunju”, “Tunsch”, “Sha”, “Shab Tab” and presently on “magicada tymbals”. The Umbrian cycads developed some kind of dialog between our hammered dulcimers: with their Sound Tymbals they seem to resonate similarily to our strings: dissected into individual periods they become an overall sound, that begins to cling (to us) only from a distance… magicada tymbals…