Manu Delago

A couple of months back I posted up what I thought was one of the most beautiful videos on YouTube - Manu Delago playing the Hang.

Since then, I've emailed Manu a bit and bought all of his stuff - through the indie artists' new haven; PayPal and International Postage. It took two weeks to get here from Austria!

Now that I've finally settled down somewhere for a short while and had a chance to listen to things, I'm thrilled by not only how technically superb all of his material is - but also how aesthetically amazing it all sounds, and feels. I can't listen to anything else at the moment - it just pales in comparison.

In order to try, vainly, to give you a taste of what I mean, here's a quick run through & review of the three discs I've got.

Handmade



This package features both a live DVD, and a CD recording of Manu's 'Handmade' quartet playing live in Austria. Manu himself is playing the Hang, along with some beautiful yet haunting jazz piano. We've also got bass and percussion from two other chaps - along with singing, violin and piano from Isa Kurz.

The violin and piano are, naturally, top-notch, but I'm completely entranced by Isa's voice and if I could ever pick out quite what the words were, I'd be singing nothing else to myself. The melody of the vocals alone would hold the attention, but the lyrics are also very well formed and give cause for thought too - superb.



There's a sample of Handmade above - the second track on there, 'Looking For The Core' (with Manu playing piano and the girl singing) is swiftly becoming one of my favourite pieces ever. Feel free to pop me an email and I'll happily share it if you're thinking about buying any of his stuff yourself.

Living Room



I wish, I really do wish, that I could be enough of a musician to make demands that seem to verge on the ridiculous, for the purity of music. I've heard of vocalists who'll only sing with their head inside a grand piano, for the particular quality of reverb it provides, I've heard of guitarists who only play with year-old strings and cellists who insist on having a new bow for every piece they play...and now this.


_{A bass clarinet - quite large and simply sumptuous to listen to}

Manu Delago and Christoph Pepe Auer (playing the Bass Clarinet [above] and Glockenspiel) decided that the only way to achieve the particular ambience, mood and sound for their duet recording would be to do so in a living room. Not just any living room either, the pair searched low and high to find one that was Just Right.

The results are, I admit, superb - though I'm not sure I'm quite talented enough to discern the parts improved by the presence of say, a leather sofa. The bass clarinet is a beautiful and rarely heard instrument, which makes it the ideal partner for the obscure Hang. Both are played technically superbly, and the result is something that anyone can enjoy - but especially a musician.

Made In Silence



This mostly features Manu playing the Hang solo, with one track featuring some bass clarinet (see below) and one featuring a digeridoo. If anything this is the most technical and least 'accessible' (to non-musicians) of the three discs, but features some absolutely gorgeous music that simply can't be classified under any genre I can think of. I'm sure some of the themes are heavily influenced by JS Bach, but the tone and percussion given by the Hang bring a whole new life to them.