Track Listing

1. Stiga
2. Zamak
3. Hadra
4. Garden
5. Uchera Minah
6. Meta
7. Iz Pod Duba
8. New Moon Hilal
9. Stojnele' Stokole

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161738 in Music
• Released on: 2002-03-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
Lumin formed in 1998 by Stellamara co-founder and producer Jeffery Stott, and composer Michael Emenau, expands and defines the elements of world electronic music. Featuring the gorgeous vocals of Irina Mikhailova, Lumin brilliantly fuses the ancient and the modern. A stunning live combination of Sufi Trance, drum and bass, Balkan Choir, and down tempo grooves that will satisfy the urban club set as well as the world music aficionado.

Amazon.com
The San Francisco Bay Area is a magnet for world music players, and Lumin is another bubble floating up from that global stew. The group is born from another band, called Stellamara, with Jeffrey Stott and Michael Emenau. In Lumin, they are joined by singer Irina Mikhailova. Born in Kazakhstan, Mikhailova is an enchantress who wails in a voice that fuses her Kazakh and Russian roots, with eastern European vocal styles and Middle Eastern effects. Sometimes singing in Bulgarian, her native Kazakh, or her own hybrid dialect, she creates the sound of ecstasy and lament, often simultaneously. Mikhailova is surrounded by a kinetic mix of grooves from Emenau, free-wheeling through a rhythmic landscape of electronic sounds and acoustic percussion samples. Stott weaves it all together, playing Middle Eastern oud, hammered dulcimer, and a bowed string & drone instrument called the yali-tambur. While rooted in folk music, it's a hallucinatory blend, laced to trance grooves and melodies that reach across the heavens and into the soul. --John Diliberto

About the Artist
Jeffery Stott has been deftly merging the worlds of modern ambient music production and middle eastern traditional musics for over a decade. He has studied rural and classical forms with a vast array of master musicians from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Iran and Turkey who reside in the vibrant Bay Area world music community. His insatiable curiosity has led him to become accomplished on several traditional middle eastern instruments including oud, baglama, yali tambur, and santoor, as well as the full range of percussion instruments of the middle east. In the digital realm, he has composed for several films, large scale dance and theatrical productions. As a founder of the successful group Stellamara, he sought to create a new form of ambient devotional music employing the sacred and sublime aspects of ancient forms from the middle east and medieval Europe and state of the art technology. His latest effort with Lumin seeks to continue in this rich vein of beauty and depth.

Michael Emenau has worked professionally as a classical and jazz musician throughout the last decade in Canada, Asia, and the US. He spent five years living in Japan where he honed his skills as a studio musician, playing and recording extensively in the acid-jazz field, as well as other "dance" and electronic oriented music. His time in Asia (including extended time in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Korea) has greatly influenced his conceptualization of what music is; its colors and use of time and space. Upon arriving in the Bay Area, he became emersed in what he feels are the two strongest characters the area has to offer; a diverse multi-ethnic population, and a vibrant high-tech industry. These diverging factors has led to a unique way of producing music, heavily reliant on technology, but subtle, colorful, and above all else, beautiful.

Irina Mikhailova, born in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian republic in the former Soviet Union. was trained at the St. Petersburg Academy of Music. While growing up and studying in Central Asia she absorbed many musical traditions including Balkan, Middle Eastern, Russian and Asian. She has brought her beautiful vocal presence to an eclectic range of music including classical and traditional songs as well as electronica and crossover genres. She brought her talents to the San Francisco bay area, where she joined the renound Balkan womens choir Kitka. She has gone on to perform with Linda Tillery, members of Oregon, George Brooks and Sovoso. She has toured internationally and been featured at several prestigious festivals and international events around the world. Her latest solo release Russian Twilight is available on Well Tempered World records.

Customer Reviews

Haunting & Hypnotic Cross of Traditional & Techno:
Discovered this CD by chance: I was captivated by the ethereal, soulful voice of Irina Mikhailova, singing in her Slavic voice, with a musical melange created by traditional instruments, yali tambur, darbuka, bendir, accompanied by a strong and rhythmic drumming. I am still puzzled that each track listed has a credit, "from Bulgaria", "from Macedona/Bulgaria", "from Croatia", or from "Greek/Macedonia" but the liner notes say, "all songs written by Jeffrey Stott, Michael Emenau and Irina Mikhailova" except for two which exclude Irina's name & credit the first two persons. I am guessing the music itself and rhythms are of traditional origin which is why only the lyrics ("songs")are credited to the artists themselves. The liner notes are very sparse, I would like to know what the lyrics are trying to convey which requires a full translation, not just the one line summary provided by each track (such a disappointment). Despite this short-coming, the whole CD is valuable: filled with trance-like rhythms, other-worldy, spiritual, soulful music ... the signature tune, "Hadra", same as title of the CD, lasts about 9 minutes and worth every second of playing time. Another favorite is "Vchera Minah" (I can always recognize tunes & lyrics of Macedonian origin, some of the best traditional music arising from the Balkans) which includes some extraordinairy violin playing, plus, the oud, tar, and rhythmic drumming. "Iz Pod Duba" is worth hearing. It is given a one sentence translation as: "under the creek the cold water flows (the virtues of nature)": sounds like a Zen poem or koan. Indeed, I am vastly disappointed, that no translations exist - I want to go deeper into understanding the origins of the lyrics and music. "Stojnele' Stokole" is a greatly enhanced tune which also has a hammered dulcimer in its musical montage ... the one sentence translation, has me totally intrigued, "my little bird, you did not drink the wine, did you?" An enticing offer indeed, but did she sip his wine? The best description of what this CD has to offer is to be found in the amazon.com introduction which tells me the most I have ever learned about the band, its origins, and the instruments played. This is a unique blend of exciting, haunting, meditative, trance-inducing music. I highly recommend this CD for anyone fascinated by Balkan music: the enhanced sounds created by remastering, stretches the music into another pleasurable realm, a mesmerizing, nearly disorienting experience ... worth having!!! Erika Borsos (erikab93)

I'm still in awe!
I still remember putting on the headphones at the local B&N, by chance. From the first five seconds of track one, Stiga, I was entranced. Irina has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. The music is very good. A good mix of Balkan/Middle Eastern/Slavic percussion and other instruments with modern down-tempo and drum-n-bass. That aside, this album would be worth buying just to hear that beautiful voice. I almost find myself despising the few tracks(6 and 8) that don't have her voice. Stojnele' Stokole(#9) is probably the most stunning track. The dronning sound(I don't know what kind of instrument it is) in the background paired with Irina's lamenting voice strikes a very ancient cord in my heart. I feel something in my blood stir. I could listen over and over again.
If you want to by one good world music album. Don't bother with all those trumped up Six Degrees type albums. Get this one you won't be disappointed.

Wonderfully melodic, except...
I found out about Lumin from the Hearts of Space web site and decided to give it a try. I really enjoy the music, and for the most part the vocals and instrumentation flow together in a wonderful, melodic world beat fusion manner. Unfortunately, in a few places the mixing has emphasized a rather sharp, two-dimensional electronic drum sound which sounds a bit dated. Track two, for example, has these drums prominently placed with the richer vocals and instrumentation tracks shunted to a more background role. Otherwise, it is an enjoyable cd and perhaps I can EQ down the offending pseudo-drums.