Northern Song

Personnel: Steve Tibbetts (6- & 12-string guitars, kalimba, loops); Marc Anderson (bongos, congas, percussion).
Recorded at Talent Studio, Oslo, Norway from October 26-28, 1981.
Tibbetts' inaugural disc for Manfred Eicher's new-music masterlabel ECM was a true anomaly in the label's already eclectic complement of players. With percussionist partner Marc Anderson (on congos, bongos, and other implements), Tibbetts' reveals himself as a master of guitars, kalimbas, and various sundry rhythm-making devices, as well as an adroit, post-Eno designer of provocative tape loops.
Filled with contemplative yet wholly enveloping soundscapes that wrestle with edgy notions of jazz, dub, and electro-acoustic design, NORTHERN SONG is one of most absorbing environments to be found within ECM's vast catalog. The opening "Big Wind" is like getting lost in African savanna land, amid labyrinthine kalimba pathways and wafting guitar. But the centerpiece of NORTHERN SONG is the 21-minute epic "Nine Doors/Breathing Space." Tibbetts and Anderson use their percussive noisemakers to project the insides of great voids onto your aural palate, evoking elements of Jon Hassell's POWER SPOT in the opening up of entrances into other dimensions. Superb.