Live concert review: #Laraaji (Saturday, July 22)
As I age, so do my musical tastes, which is to say, genres and musicians I had previously dismissed in my 20's as moribund or risibly out of vogue have become suddenly much more intriguing simply by virtue of the passage of time.
New Age music appears to be the latest beneficiary of this ineluctable process. Just as I've started to flirt with eastern religions and literature, so have I started listening to artists who incorporate musical, cultural, and spiritual traditions from the Subcontinent and Southeast Asia into various western musical genres, sometimes to stunning artistic success. Alice Coltrane, Bill Laswell, and Steve Roach, though fusing their appropriated material with very different western genres, have all produced excellent albums that honor their respective traditions.
My interest in Laraaji actually precedes any engagement with New Age music as such, and this is entirely due to the fact that Brian Eno produced his debut album, "Ambient 3: Day of Radiance." As a longtime Eno fanboy, I have listened to this striking, luminous album many times over the last 10 years. It's one of the few albums I enjoy that actively tries to inculcate a sense of happiness in its listener -- give it a try, and I can almost guarantee that its indefatigably propulsive long-form tracks will crack a smile. One should probably expect that from the music of a septuagenarian who looks closer to 50 and leads laughter meditation workshops - there must something to this pursuit of happiness.
Needless to say, I was delighted to see that he was touring and indeed playing Seattle.
A note on the venue: the Good Shepherd Center is a large, turn-of-the-century building that sits between the relatively quiet neighborhoods of Wallingford and Tanglewood in North Seattle. I've lived in North Seattle for two years and hadn't heard of it until I saw the concert listing. My friend and I entered it from the adjoining Meridian Playground, a pretty public park (again, that I hadn't heard of) with a small orchard -- the apple trees currently have these bizarre covers to prevent some insect-borne disease.
My friend pointed out that the Good Shepherd's website cautions that the venue is not air-conditioned and that we should dress accordingly and bring a fan. We did neither, but, as soon as we summited the stairs on the fourth floor, we both realized 1) that we would be comfortable, 2) that at 5 minutes before showtime, the set had already begun.
I really had no idea what to expect but was very pleasantly surprised. Laraaji has worked across many genres, and the show write-up mentioned that he was touring with "new music with modified electric zither/harp, voice, kalimba, and electronics." That's exactly what he and his touring partner, Arji OceAnanda, gave us for two hours.
The whole set was very relaxing. It wasn't always clear when and where tracks began or ended, but each flowed together in such a way that it didn't really matter. The first sequence leveraged just the zither, but by the time he started the next sequence, he was somehow playing the zither (situated on top of the piano), an effects pedal, and the piano itself. It was impressive both visually and aurally - the scales he drew on the zither drove the sequence, while his plinking along on the lower register of the piano and drawing out notes using the effects pedal provided some needed balance. Things like this shouldn't work, but they do when you're as talented and accomplished as Laraaji.
One sequence involved Laraaji banging and then drawing circles on the gong you can see center stage. The sound he created was incredibly evocative in the way of the most powerful ambient compositions, turning what always seems like such a simple instrument into one capable of astonishing complexity.
A note on Arji: it was actually pretty unclear what instruments she was playing, and I'm pretty sure one of them was an iPad. I know she contributed a lot to the sound, albeit in much more mysterious ways.
He and Arji ended with a melody on dueling harmonicas. And some big smiles. It was a great show, and it has encourage me to spend a lot more time in his back catalog.
New Age music appears to be the latest beneficiary of this ineluctable process. Just as I've started to flirt with eastern religions and literature, so have I started listening to artists who incorporate musical, cultural, and spiritual traditions from the Subcontinent and Southeast Asia into various western musical genres, sometimes to stunning artistic success. Alice Coltrane, Bill Laswell, and Steve Roach, though fusing their appropriated material with very different western genres, have all produced excellent albums that honor their respective traditions.
My interest in Laraaji actually precedes any engagement with New Age music as such, and this is entirely due to the fact that Brian Eno produced his debut album, "Ambient 3: Day of Radiance." As a longtime Eno fanboy, I have listened to this striking, luminous album many times over the last 10 years. It's one of the few albums I enjoy that actively tries to inculcate a sense of happiness in its listener -- give it a try, and I can almost guarantee that its indefatigably propulsive long-form tracks will crack a smile. One should probably expect that from the music of a septuagenarian who looks closer to 50 and leads laughter meditation workshops - there must something to this pursuit of happiness.
Needless to say, I was delighted to see that he was touring and indeed playing Seattle.
A note on the venue: the Good Shepherd Center is a large, turn-of-the-century building that sits between the relatively quiet neighborhoods of Wallingford and Tanglewood in North Seattle. I've lived in North Seattle for two years and hadn't heard of it until I saw the concert listing. My friend and I entered it from the adjoining Meridian Playground, a pretty public park (again, that I hadn't heard of) with a small orchard -- the apple trees currently have these bizarre covers to prevent some insect-borne disease.
My friend pointed out that the Good Shepherd's website cautions that the venue is not air-conditioned and that we should dress accordingly and bring a fan. We did neither, but, as soon as we summited the stairs on the fourth floor, we both realized 1) that we would be comfortable, 2) that at 5 minutes before showtime, the set had already begun.
I really had no idea what to expect but was very pleasantly surprised. Laraaji has worked across many genres, and the show write-up mentioned that he was touring with "new music with modified electric zither/harp, voice, kalimba, and electronics." That's exactly what he and his touring partner, Arji OceAnanda, gave us for two hours.
The whole set was very relaxing. It wasn't always clear when and where tracks began or ended, but each flowed together in such a way that it didn't really matter. The first sequence leveraged just the zither, but by the time he started the next sequence, he was somehow playing the zither (situated on top of the piano), an effects pedal, and the piano itself. It was impressive both visually and aurally - the scales he drew on the zither drove the sequence, while his plinking along on the lower register of the piano and drawing out notes using the effects pedal provided some needed balance. Things like this shouldn't work, but they do when you're as talented and accomplished as Laraaji.
One sequence involved Laraaji banging and then drawing circles on the gong you can see center stage. The sound he created was incredibly evocative in the way of the most powerful ambient compositions, turning what always seems like such a simple instrument into one capable of astonishing complexity.
A note on Arji: it was actually pretty unclear what instruments she was playing, and I'm pretty sure one of them was an iPad. I know she contributed a lot to the sound, albeit in much more mysterious ways.
He and Arji ended with a melody on dueling harmonicas. And some big smiles. It was a great show, and it has encourage me to spend a lot more time in his back catalog.
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