Four docs unspooling at the Maui Film Festival (fragment)
For
25 years, Michael Masley has been hypnotizing crowds on the sidewalks
of Berkeley, Calif., with the magical sound of his cymbalom. Masley
plays his instrument with bowhammers -- metal bows attached to his
fingers by rings. Featuring interviews with such rock greats as Steven
Tyler and Joe Elliott, the Atorrante Films documentary from director
Martin Yernazian tells the poignant tale of this struggling visionary
and musical activist.
06/02/2009
- The Hollywood Reporter
- By Shannon L. Bowen
Note: This film has not been completed, a work in progress was shown at the Maui Film Festival.
ART OFFICIALLY FAVORED Movie
Click poster for Art Officially Favored Movie site
"...I've played the street for 25 years
and now, suddenly, from this paved instrument:
these silent notes rise
hand-pressed from sidewalk to cyberspace..."
ARTIST GENERAL'S WARNING:
A little goes a long way.
(Conformity is addictive)
...Don't abuse it.
"BIR WADA GVIS"
(burr wade-a geeviss)
Be It Resolved With All Due Attitude:
Global Village Idiot Savant
"No one plays the cymbalom, the large hammered dulcimer, the way Michael Masley does. His creative brilliance goes beyond his performance... Masley...invented "bowhammers"...finding rich, haunting overtones that characterize his music."
--Bob Boilen--producer, All Songs Considered, NPR Classics (liner notes)
"...I realized, my God, Steven's right, he is a genius...you have to dig a little, like I was doing, but, he really is...he's DIFFERENT...There's NO one out there doing that in this country...it's soul music, in absolutely the purest form...it comes from the Street, it comes from that kind of player who's had to make a living by turning people on who are there--in the Street..."
Producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon, Patti
Smith...)
Art Officially Favored documental
interview @ Tonehenge / Berkeley CA 3-18-02
Earth Folk musician Michael Masley (MAZElee)
with his self-designed 'bowhammers'.
"nothing short of amazing...ethereal, symphonic, and percussive... complex and accessible, invigorating and relaxing"--da Flower Punk
/ pauserecord.com
DISENGAGE IMAGINATION IMMEDIATELY IF EXISTENTIAL VERTIGO OCCURS.
DO NOT FEED OR EAT LEFTOVER VISIONTHINGS!
Life in the Vast Lane
Launch Complete (All 'Systems' GOne) We Have Cognition
FOURSQUARED
FULLCIRCLE
GALAXIES
STARPACK
In time, nothing
in no time, everything
alive by the billion darkly:
we live beyond our means of understanding. . .
In no time, nothing;
in time, everything
aloof, soaring on ceremony
the magnitude of providence
holds its peace like breath withdrawn from ours
life by life, death by death.
Somewhere in the legend of a map so deep that stars are lost in solid light do you know what a world expects of itself?
do you know where the Earth ends tonight?
-- Michael Masley
MILKY WAY NEXT EXIT
Featured on "All Songs Considered" CD on NPR Classics "Six White Horses" from
Mystery Repeats Itself
CYMBALOM SOLOS is the first "Bowhammer Cymbalom" release on Planet Earth. This album represents the essence of Masley's unique approach to the Cymbalom providing a relaxing, mesmerizing and unforgettable experience. Though a professional studio recording, it was offered as a complete title only on cassette (the first half, however, opens the compilation "Mystery Repeats Itself"). 2003 marks the first complete CD release of "Cymbalom Solos".
or get individual songs through iTunes or Amazon
"Vital and Inspired" --Barry Cleveland August, 2003
Click on Cover for details
Mystery Repeats Itself--The World's First Bowhammer Cymbalom CD (released 1995)
or get individual songs through iTunes or Amazon
"Masley is a genius...his music appears to come from another world...an unforgettable collection..." --Gianluigi Gasparetti / DEEP LISTENINGS (Italy)
Cymbalennium --The World's Second (Bowhammer Cymbalom CD)
or get individual songs through iTunes or Amazon
"...vast in scope...as wizardly a soundtrack to the Harry Potter books as
one could hope for..." --Mitch Ritter / DIRTY LINEN
"Masley's specialty is strange instruments...bears the mark of traditional music, but is also disconnected from all tradition...a form of ethnic, eastern ambient without getting tiresome...a very different musical world...a gigantic ear-opener..." --Simen Viig Ostensen / TARKUS (Norway)
"...sparkling excursions...chiaroscuro nuances...these are new rhythms, harmonies and constructions of a
superior mind..." --Gianluigi Gasparetti / DEEP LISTENINGS (Italy)
"one of our more unique artists...Masley finds a global balance, with hypnotic
results that transport the listener...on the fast track to another world..." --Lloyde
Barde / COMMON GROUND Complete Reviews
THE LIFE & TIMES OF A SUPERPOWER'S FIRST (BUT NOT LAST)
ARTIST GENERAL
(Composed, performed & produced
by Michael Masley / ArtistGeneral Productions / Copyright '06)
The cymbalom (also sp. cimbalom) is a modern orchestral (Hungarian) version of
the hammered dulcimer, appearing first in Persia as the santour. Its trapezoid
shape & tradition of playing with two hand-held 'hammers' have traveled world
culture's living memory without missing a beat for 2500 years. Michael Masley
plays with a technique he originated, which he calls "bowhammer" cymbalom--adding
thumbpicks, this enables plucking, striking, and bowing.
Michael's music has been heard in diverse national contexts (94 Winter Olympics,
NFL broadcasts, HBO, Entertainment Tonight, NPR, etc.);
All Things Considered aired a profile of Masley (8-15-95) and excerpts
from his CD Mystery Repeats Itselfoccasionally
surface on that program as well as on Morning Edition.
Michael worked with Ry Cooder on the soundtrack to Geronimo: An American
Legend, contributing original music on cymbalom, Lakota flute, and water
pipes. He furnished the soundtrack for the acclaimed ski videos of Lito Tejada-Flores
Breakthrough on Skis I, II, III and a recent NASA video Lunar Prospector.
Michael Masley's instrumental modifications, inventions,
and extended techniques are treated in an article by Maxwell Taylor in the September 93 issue of Experimental Musical Instruments and Volume 9 of the EMI cassette series.
In Credit is not Negotiable (Musician
Magazine / Expert Witness, December, 1994),
Masley describes his Quixotian Quest (legal action) for contribution credit from
the Sony Corporation.
Masley recorded with producer Butch Vig (drummer for the multi-platinum
rock act Garbage) and appears on Garbage Version 2. He has
also recorded with Tom Waits, Chris Isaak and Mylene Farmer and appears on the
release Celtic
Zen, with Levi Chen and Lisa Franco.
He has performed in Cloud Chamber, a quintet featuring cymbalom
with fretless electric bass (Michael Manring) cello (Dan Reiter) guitar (Barry
Cleveland) perc./dulcimer (Joe Venegoni). Dark Matter, the debut CD of
Cloud Chamber, is now available
from Amazon.com. Also see Interview.
He has performed in the rave duo Trance&Mental with Mickey Huff.
All Strings Considered (2001)
features dulcimer duets with Jamie Janover.
Click album cover to order.
"This album is billed as "hammered dulcimer dialogues," and that's exactly what you get from these two expert players...esoteric but innovative...a lush web of sounds, tones and melodies that seem to have no musical boundaries..." --RELIX
"...two geniuses of hammered dulcimer...superrefined acoustic dialogues, a record that enchants...a marvelous union...artists on the edge..." --Gianluigi Gasparetti / DEEP LISTENINGS (Italy)
"startling and adventurous duet excursions on this gorgeous CD...challenging, dense music that
nonetheless spotlights the delicate, mystical tonalities of their instruments...Masley's use of bowhammers, his own invention, allows...exotic and unexpected textures..." --Michael Parrish / DIRTY LINEN
"LieJinx is the epitome of Victor Hugo's "idea whose time has come."
Its impact - when it happens - could be nothing less than
the revitalization of democracy."
Ted Greenwald, senior editor Wired Magazine
"There is no deeper loneliness
Than the memory of a miracle."
Joseph Brodsky
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